HISTORY RESOURCE PACK
GRADE 10
2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. How do we understand our world today? ...... 3 1.1 The world around 1600 1.1.1 China (Ming Dynasty) 1.1.2 Songhai empire (Timbuktu)
2. European expansion and conquest in the 15th to 18th centuries...... 10 2.1 Case Study • America: Spanish conquest
3. The French Revolution ...... 15 3.1 Case study • Ideas of liberty and slavery in the French colonies: Haiti and Tussaint L’Ouverture • Legacy of the French Revolution
4. Transformation in Southern Africa after 1750 ...... 26 4.1 The Mfecane: east of the Drakensberg
5. Colonial expansion after 1750 ...... 36 5.1 Case study • The Basotho Kingdom under Moshoeshoe
6. The South Africa War and Union ...... 43
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1. How do we understand our world today? 1.1 China (Ming Dynasty)
SOURCE 1A
A map indicating the different voyages of the Chinese treasure fleets in 1421. Taken From: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MING/COMM.HTM
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Under the Ming dynasty, China experienced one of the greatest economic expansions in its history. This expansion affected every area of Chinese economic life: agriculture, commerce, and maritime trade and exploration. It was under the Ming that the Chinese first began to trade and interact with Europeans on any significant scale. The presence of Europeans would eventually prove to be the most contentious aspect of modern Chinese history, but during the Ming, European trade greatly expanded Chinese economic life, particularly in the south.
Maritime Expansion Through most of their history, the Chinese have concentrated largely on land commerce and exploration. However, the Yung-lo emperor (1403-1424), the third emperor of the dynasty, began to sponsor a series of naval expeditions between 1405; these expeditions continued under his successors, the Hung-hsi emperor (1425) and the Hsüan-te emperor (1426-1435).
The reason for these naval expeditions are varied, but the Yung-lo emperor wanted to expand trade with other countries and had a taste for imported and exotic goods. These expeditions sailed to East Asia, Southeast Asia, southern India, Ceylon, the Persian Gulf, and Africa. Trading from Africa to Southeast Asia, these expeditions made China the world's greatest commercial naval power in the world at the time, far superior to any European power. This led to great prestige throughout the world; it was at this time that China first received embassies from major Islamic countries such as Europe. In 1435, however, the court scholars convinced the emperor that the decline of the dynasty would be signalled by a taste for exotic wares, so China greatly contracted its commercial and maritime expansion it had begun so auspiciously.
The Agricultural Revolution The Hong-wu emperor had as one of his central tasks the rebuilding of the Chinese economy which had been devastated by the excesses of the Mongol rulers. Between 1370 and 1398, China experienced a revolution in agriculture unparalleled in its history. Rice was the staple food of the population of China, and rice production had increased in the eleventh century with the use of terraces. The Ming introduced the use of Champa rice from southeast Asia; this rice, though less nutritious than Chinese rice, could be grown in a little over half the growing season of regular rice and produced much larger harvests. The most important innovation introduced in the Ming period was the practice of crop rotation, by which fields could be kept continuously in cultivation while still maintaining their fertility. In addition, peasants began using irrigation pumps and stocking the rice paddies with fish, which fertilized the rice (this also added another item to the peasant diet). In addition, however, 4
peasants also began experimenting with cash crops, such as cotton for clothing, indigo for clothing dyes, and cane.
Hong-wu's most aggressive agricultural project involved reforestation beginning in the 1390's. Nanjing was reforested with 50 million trees in 1391; these trees became the lumber that built the naval fleet put together by Yung-lo in the early 1400's. In 1392 and again in 1396, peasants were ordered to plant fruit trees in the provinces of Anhui, Hunan and Hupeh. All in all, over one billion trees were planted in this decade. This reforestation greatly replenished both the timber and the food supply.
The Commercial Revolution The Ming dynasty is characterized by rapid and dramatic population growth, largely due to the increased food supply on account of the agricultural revolution. Urbanization was largely carried out on a small scale; small urban centres with markets proliferated around the country rather than the growth of a few large cities. Town markets mainly traded food with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil.
The large urban centres, however, also grew. The growth of large cities such as Nanjing inspired the growth of industry as well. In the mid-sixteenth century, because of the growth of large cities and the loosening of restrictive laws, commerce began to boom in China. This expansion of Chinese commerce, which lasted from 1500 to 1800, is considered the "Third Commercial Revolution" in Chinese history. In particular, small business grew that specialized in paper, silk, cotton and porcelain goods (the unique brand of porcelain ware that was all the fashion during the Ming consisted of white porcelain with blue paintings).
This commercial revolution included extensive trade with foreign countries, including direct trade with Europe. By the late sixteenth century, China was intimately a part of the growing global economy. The Chinese were trading actively with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Japanese, who traded silver for Chinese silks and porcelain. The Ming, however, had built their own merchant marine using the trees planted by the Hong-wu emperor in the 1390's. With this fleet, which rivalled that of any European power, the Ming shipped silks, cotton, and porcelain to Manila in the Philippines and there traded with the Spanish for silver, firearms, and American goods such as sugar, potatoes, and tobacco. The Chinese porcelains, marked by the Ming style of blue painting on a white ceramic background, became all the rage in Europe in the seventeenth century. The Dutch, however, began importing tea, which became wildly popular all throughout Europe.
All this trade had made China one of the leading manufacturing economies in the world. In exchange for raw goods such as silver—probably half the silver mined in the Americas from the mid-1500's to 1800 ended up in China—the Chinese shipped out manufactured goods such as textiles and porcelain. By the mid-1500's, China was well on its way to becoming an urban, industrial, and mercantile economy. The 5
growth of the industrial sector spawned a technological boom in every area, from silk looms to paper manufacture to the development of new machines for planting, growing, and harvesting crops.
1.1.2 Songhai empire (Timbuktu)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sghi/hd_sghi.htm http://www.mapsofworld.com/mali/history/songhai-empire.html
Songhai Empire is considered as one of the greatest empires of western Africa. Songhai Empire flourished during the 15th and 16th century after the fall of the Carthage, Numidia and Egypt. Songhai, Mali and Ghana empires formed the core of the West Africa.
In the late14th century, during the reign of Sunni Ali, Songhai or Songhay Empire expanded and reached lofty heights of development. The Ghanaian and the Mali Empires were also parts of the Songhai Empire. Sunni Ali was an excellent administrator. Under his rule, the Songhai Empire was divided into many provinces. He appointed a separate governor for each of the province. He sought out new methods of farming, organized a navy, all accounting to his glory and success.
After the death of Sunny Ali, his son Sunni Baru ascended the throne. But Sunni Baru did not prove to be a great leader like his father. He was able to rule for a very 6
short period after which the Songhai Empire went under the domains of Askia Muhammad Toure who proved to be a great leader. He brought about changes in the law system by placing Islamic law over traditional Songhai laws. He brought changes in the learning system by introducing schools and learning centres in Timbuktu. Scholars from the Sankore University were given the responsibility of spreading education among the people of the empire. Under his rule the Songhai Empire expanded and turned out to be the largest empire in Central Sudan.
The Songhai Empire marks the golden period in the history of Mali. The period witnessed all-round development in trade, commerce, education and law and order.
Leo Africanus’ description of Timbuktu http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/leo_africanus.html Leo Africanus: Description of Timbuktu from The Description of Africa (1526)
El Hasan ben Muhammed el-Wazzan-ez-Zayyati was born in the Moorish city of Granada in 1485, but was expelled along with his parents and thousands of other Muslims by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. Settling in Morocco, he studied in Fez, and as a teenager accompanied his uncle on diplomatic missions throughout North Africa and to the Sub-Saharan kingdom of Ghana. Still a young man, he was captured by Christian pirates and presented as an exceptionally learned slave to the great Renaissance pope, Leo X. Leo freed him, baptised him under the name "Johannis Leo de Medici," and commissioned him to write in Italian the detailed survey of Africa which provided most of what Europeans knew about the continent for the next several centuries. At the time he visited the Ghanaian city of Timbuktu, it was somewhat past its peak, but still a thriving Islamic city famous for its learning. "Timbuktu" was to become a byword in Europe as the most inaccessible of cities, but at the time Leo visited, it was the center of a busy trade in African products and in books. Leo is said to have died in 1554 in Tunis, having reconverted to Islam.
What evidence does he provide that suggests the importance of learning in Timbuktu?
The name of this kingdom is a modern one, after a city which was built by a king named Mansa Suleyman in the year 610 of the hegira [1232 CE] around twelve miles from a branch of the Niger River. (1)
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The houses of Timbuktu are huts made of clay-covered wattles with thatched roofs. In the center of the city is a temple built of stone and mortar, built by an architect named Granata, (2) and in addition there is a large palace, constructed by the same architect, where the king lives. The shops of the artisans, the merchants, and especially weavers of cotton cloth are very numerous. Fabrics are also imported from Europe to Timbuktu, borne by Berber merchants. (3) The women of the city maintain the custom of veiling their faces, except for the slaves who sell all the foodstuffs. The inhabitants are very rich, especially the strangers who have settled in the country; so much so that the current king (4) has given two of his daughters in marriage to two brothers, both businessmen, on account of their wealth. There are many wells containing sweet water in Timbuktu; and in addition, when the Niger is in flood canals deliver the water to the city. Grain and animals are abundant, so that the consumption of milk and butter is considerable. But salt is in very short supply because it is carried here from Tegaza, some 500 miles from Timbuktu. I happened to be in this city at a time when a load of salt sold for eighty ducats. The king has a rich treasure of coins and gold ingots. One of these ingots weighs 970 pounds. (5)
The royal court is magnificent and very well organized. When the king goes from one city to another with the people of his court, he rides a camel and the horses are led by hand by servants. If fighting becomes necessary, the servants mount the camels and all the soldiers mount on horseback. When someone wishes to speak to the king, he must kneel before him and bow down; but this is only required of those who have never before spoken to the king, or of ambassadors. The king has about 3,000 horsemen and infinity of foot-soldiers armed with bows made of wild fennel [?] which they use to shoot poisoned arrows. This king makes war only upon neighbouring enemies and upon those who do not want to pay him tribute. When he has gained a victory, he has all of them--even the children--sold in the market at Timbuktu.
Only small, poor horses are born in this country. The merchants use them for their voyages and the courtiers to move about the city. But the good horses come from Barbary. They arrive in a caravan and, ten or twelve days later, they are led to the ruler, who takes as many as he likes and pays appropriately for them. The king is a declared enemy of the Jews. He will not allow any to live in the city. If he hears it said that a Berber merchant frequents them or does business with them, he confiscates his goods. There are in Timbuktu numerous judges, teachers and priests, all properly appointed by the king. He greatly honours learning. Many hand- written books imported from Barbary are also sold. There is more profit made from this commerce than from all other merchandise.
Instead of coined money, pure gold nuggets are used; and for small purchases, cowrie shells which have been carried from Persia, (6) and of which 400 equal a ducat. Six and two-thirds of their ducats equal one Roman gold ounce. (7)
The people of Timbuktu are of a peaceful nature. They have a custom of almost continuously walking about the city in the evening (except for those that sell gold), between 10 PM and 1 AM, playing musical instruments and dancing. The citizens have at their service many slaves, both men and women. 8
The city is very much endangered by fire. At the time when I was there on my second voyage, (8) half the city burned in the space of five hours. But the wind was violent and the inhabitants of the other half of the city began to move their belongings for fear that the other half would burn.
There are no gardens or orchards in the area surrounding Timbuktu. Translated by Paul Brains
(1) Mansa Suleyman reigned 1336-1359. The city was in fact probably founded in the 11th century by Tuaregs, but became the chief city of the king of Mali in 1324. (2) Ishak es Sahili el-Gharnati, brought to Tinbuktu by Mansa Suleyman. (3) By camel caravan across the Sahara Desert from North Africa. (4) 'Omar ben Mohammed Naddi, not in fact the king, but representative of the ruler of the kingdom of Songhai. (5) Such fabulous nuggets are commonly mentioned by Arab writers about Africa, but their size is probably grossly exaggerated. (6) Cowrie shells, widely used for money in West Africa, sometimes came in fact from even farther away, from the Maladive Islands of Southeast Asia. (7) A Sudanese gold ducat would weigh .15 oz. (8) Probably in 1512.
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2. EUROPEAN EXPANSION AND CONQUEST IN THE 15TH – 18TH CENTURIES
OVERALL KEY QUESTION:
HOW DID EUROPEAN EXPANSION CHANGE THE WORLD?
INFORMAL ACTIVITIES
2.1 CASE STUDY: (A case study is a detailed example of something. By studying the Spanish colonialism learners should get an understanding of the whole process of colonialism)
• AMERICA: SPANISH CONQUEST
TASK KEY QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS CONCERNING SPANISH COLONIALISM TODAY?
Concepts to be examined:
• Historical sources and evidence • Multiperspectivity
Skills to be examined:
• Evaluate the usefulness and reliability of sources • Recognise that there is often more than one perspective • Extract and interpret information from the sources
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2.1.1 Source A
Jean Bottaro et al, In search of history Grade 10, Oxford University Press, 2005 This map shows the routes taken by the conquistadors (the Spanish term for conquerors, year15??) p.36 In search of History Grade 10.
2.1.2 In which way is the source useful in understanding Spanish conquest of the Americas
USEFUL • The map indicates the specific routes and time periods that the Spanish conquistadors followed • It also depicts their conquest of the Americas
NOT USEFUL
• Map does not give enough information on the different routes followed
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2.1.3 Source B
J.Parry (1914 – 1982), The discovery of South America, p61, 1979 The author is a well-known researcher on the Spanish conquest of the Americas The author’s viewpoint of the reason of the Spanish conquest
… gold obsessed Columbus….It was always the principal object of his searchings among the islands….. gold came chiefly from hot countries, and those hot countries lay south. Other things being equal, Columbus always preferred a southerly over a northerly course of exploration….
2.1.4 What is the author’s viewpoint regarding the aim of the Spanish conquest of the Americas?
• The main objective was to gain material possession, in this case gold
2.1.5 Is this source reliable for a historian in studying this period of colonialism?
RELIABLE
• Although this is a secondary source, J.Parry (1914 – 1982) was a well-known author who published various works on the Spanish colonialism
NOT RELIABLE
• It is a secondary source, written in 1979 long after the event or • It is not first – hand evidence, coming from the specific period of study
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2.2 Source C and Source D
Source C
A Spanish priest in Hispaniola, South America, Father Antonio Montesinos, in 1511 (taken from Jean Bottaro et al, In search of history Grade 10, Oxford University Press, 2005)
Personal account and viewpoint of the conditions in which local people worked under in Hisponalia
By what right and justice do you keep these Indians in cruel and humble servitude? Why do you keep them so oppressed and weary, not giving them enough to eat, nor taking care of them in their illness? For with the excessive work you demand of them they fall ill and die……. Are these not men?
Source D
This is a mural by the 20th century Mexican artist, Diego Riviera. It shows the control the Spanish had over the local labour force. In the background, the local people work in the field and mines. In the front the Spanish brand them as slaves. p.22 In search of History Grade 10, Learners’ books.
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2.2.1 What viewpoint does Father Antonio Montesinos has concerning the treatment of the Indians by the Spanish? Substantiate your answer by referring to the source • The Spanish conquest was regarded by the priest as cruel and inhuman; they were regarded as slaves • The local people as the workforce, were not given enough to eat, were regarded as slaves and did not get the necessary care when ill
2.2.2 How does Source C support what is depicted in Source D? • Source C tells us about the cruelty and abuse of the local people in the Americas by the Spanish conquerors • The mural reflects this cruelty and abuse through focus on Spanish control of the local workforce, the local people working in the field and mines and the branding of the local people as slaves
2.2.3 Source C: Why would you regard the personal account of the priest to be a reliable source? • The priest lived and witnessed the suffering of the local people • He was a Spanish priest brave enough to speak out
OOoOOOOOOO
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3. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Source 3A
"Taking of the Bastille"
The "bravery of the citizens united against" the royal army, as the text suggests, enabled them to conquer in four hours a fortress that had defeated invasions since 1368.
Stunning images such as these—as well as dramatic press reports—contributed to what has become the widespread view that the taking of the Bastille was a spontaneous, brave, and widely popular revolt against royal authority.
Source: Museum of the French Revolution 84.21
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Source 3B
"Vanguard of Women going to Versailles"
This drawing shows a group of women presumably leading the procession to Versailles. Dressed as servants and shopkeepers, the women are depicted as a military unit led by one woman in the role of an officer on the horse and by a drummer, followed by the rest carrying the common weapons of pikes and pitchforks.
Source: mfr 85.433
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Source 3C
This extract describes scenes at Versailles, the royal palace, during the March of the Women to Versailles. The crowd laid siege to the palace and the next day brought the royal family back to Paris. A woman who was a member of the Royal Household left an account of what happened. This is an extract:
‘I shook myself for I had been very fast asleep, and then climbed onto the window and leaned out over the leads. But they jutted out too far for me to be able to see the streets. I could distinctly hear a number of voices shouting ‘Kill them! Kill them! Kill the [Guards].’
The crowd broke into the palace, and the Queen escaped to the King’s bedchamber at the mob battered at the doors to her rooms. The Queen then entered the salon. ‘Her hair was in disorder, her face pale but dignified, her whole bearing struck the imagination unforgettably. She said her voice choked with sobs: “They want to compel the King and me to go to Paris with the heads of our bodyguards carried before us on pikes.”’
‘This was exactly what happened. Thus were the King and Queen conducted to Paris. We ourselves returned by another way, far from this terrible spectacle. Our path led through the Bois de Boulogne. Scarcely a leaf was stirring, the landscape, bathed in sunlight, seemed to mock our distress.’
At the King’s request, one of the household remained in Versailles:
‘A frightful solitude already reigned over Versailles. No other sound could be heard in the palace but that of gates, doors and shutter, which had not been closed since the time of Louis XIV.’
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Source 3D
This is a report that appeared in the British Newspaper at the time of the execution of Louis XVI:
London Times January 25, 1793
EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI.KING OF THE FRENCH
By an express, which arrived yesterday morning from Messrs. Fector and Co. at Dover, we learn the following particulars of the King's execution:
At six o'clock on Monday morning, the KING went to take a farewell of the QUEEN and ROYAL FAMILY. After staying with them some time, and taking a very affectionate farewell of them, the KING descended from the tower of the Temple, and entered the Mayor's carriage, with his confessor and two Members of the Municipality, and passed slowly along the Boulevards which led from the Temple to the place of execution. All women were prohibited from appearing in the streets, and all persons from being seen at their windows. A strong guard cleared the procession.
The greatest tranquillity prevailed in every street through which the procession passed. About half past nine, the King arrived at the place of execution, which was in the Place de Louis XV, between the pedestal, which formerly supported the statue of his grandfather, and the promenade of the Elysian Fields. LOUIS mounted the scaffold with composure, and that modest intrepidity peculiar to oppressed innocence, the trumpets sounding and drums beating during the whole time. He made a sign of wishing to harangue the multitude, when the drums ceased, and Louis spoke these few words. I die innocent; I pardon my enemies; I only sanctioned upon compulsion the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He was proceeding, but the beating of the drums drowned his voice. His executioners then laid hold of him, and an instant after, his head was separated from his body; this was about a quarter past ten o'clock.
After the execution, the people threw their hats up in the air, and cried out Vive la Nation! Some of them endeavoured to seize the body, but it was removed by a strong guard to the Temple, and the lifeless remains of the King were exempted from those outrages which his Majesty had experienced during his life. The King was attended on the scaffold by an Irish Priest as his Confessor, not choosing to be accompanied by one who had taken the National oath. He was dressed in a brown great coat, white waistcoat and black breeches, and his hair was powdered.
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When M. de Malsherbes announced to LOUIS, the fatal sentence of Death, "Ah!" exclaimed the Monarch, "I shall then at length be delivered from this cruel suspense."
The decree was imported that LOUIS should be beheaded in the Place de Carousel, but reasons of public safety induced the Executive Council to prefer the Place to la Revolution, formerly the Place de Louis XV. Since the decree of death was issued, a general consternation has prevailed throughout Paris;—the Sans Culottes are the only persons that rejoice.—The honest citizens, immured within their habitations, could not suppress their heart-felt grief, and mourned in private with their families the murder of their much-loved Sovereign.
The last requests of the unfortunate LOUIS breathes the soul of magnanimity, and a mind enlightened with the finest ideas of human virtue. He appears not to be that man which his enemies reported. His heart was sound—his head was clear—and he would have reigned with glory, had he but possessed those faults which his assassins laid to his charge. His mind possessed the suggestions of wisdom; and even in his last moments, when the spirit of life was winged for another world, his lips gave utterance to them, and he spoke with firmness and with resignation. Thus has ended the life of LOUIS XVI. [ . . . ]
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Source 3E
This was the most popular song of the French Revolution. The English is a rough translation of the French. [Ça ira, literally means "that will go (well)"!]
This source is from the Modern History Sourcebook, called ‘Ça Ira’ Ça Ira! We Will Win! Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win", Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse repète: The people of this day neverendingly sing Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win, Malgré les mutins tout réussira! In spite of the traitors, all will succeed"
Nos ennemis confus en restent là, Our confused enemies are staying low et nous allons chanter Alleluya! But we are going to sing "Alleluia!" Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win", Quand Boileau jadis du clergé parla When Boileau once spoke about the clergy Comme un prophète, il a prédit cela, "Like a prophet he predicted as much., En chantant ma chansonnette, By singing my ditty, Avec plaisir on dira: With pleasure I will say: Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win, Malgré les mutins tout réussira. In spite of the traitors, all will succeed" Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Pierrot et Margot chantent à la guinguette, Punch and Judy sing at the show Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Réjouissons-nous, le bon temps viendra. Let us rejoices, for the good times are coming Le peuple français jadis "a quia" The French people were once nobodies L'aristocratie dit: "Mea culpa." But now the aristocrats say "we are guilty" Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," e clergé regrette le bien qu'il a. The clergy now regrets all its wealth . Par justice la nation l'aura, Through justice the nation will have it all, Par le prudent LaFayette Through the wise LaFayette Tout trouble s'apaisera, All trouble will be quieted, Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win, Malgré les mutins tout réussira. In spite of the traitors, all will succeed" Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Petits comme grands sont soldats The weak as well as the strong are soldiers dans l'âme, in their souls Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Pendant la guerre aucun ne trahira. During the war, not one will be a traitor. Avec coeur tout bon Français combattra, With their hearts, all good Frenchmen will fight, S'il voit du louche, hardiment And when he sees a slacker, il parlera. he will boldly speak up Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Lafayette dit: "Vienne qui voudra." Lafayette says, "Let he who will follow me!" Le patriotisme leur répondra And patriotism will respond, Sans craindre ni feu ni flamme, Without fear of fire or flame. Les Français toujours vaincront, The French will always conquer Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win, Malgré les mutins tout réussira. In spite of the traitors, all will succeed" Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Les aristocrates à la lanterne! Let's string up the aristocrats on the lampposts! Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Les aristocrates, on les pendra! We'll string up the aristocrats! 20
Le despotisme expirera, Despotism will die, La liberté triomphera, Liberty will triumph Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Nous n'avions plus ni nobles, ni prêtres, And we will no longer have nobles or priests Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win,"" L'égalité partout régnera. Equality will reign throughout the land/world L'esclave autrichien le suivra, And the Austrian slave will follow it. Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, "We will win, we will win, we will win," Et leur infernale clique And their hellish clique Au diable s'envolera. will be sent to the devil.
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Source 3F
How are revolutions remembered? This painting was done in 1830 after another revolution in France. However there are symbols that originated in the French Revolution of 1789. The allegorical figure of Liberty waves the tricolour flag and storms the corpse-ridden barricades with a young combatant at her side.
Eugène Delacroix 1798-1863 Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) 1830 Canvas H 2.60 m; W 3.25 m RF 129
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TOPIC 3: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
• Legacies of the French Revolution
Key Question: What is the link between the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the South African Bill of Rights?
Skills: Extracts and interpret information from a number of sources
Concepts: Similarity and Difference.
SOURCES:
Source A
The following extract is about Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen taken from In Search of History by Jean Bottaro et al,
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in their rights. 2. These rights are those of liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. 3. The power to rule comes from the whole nation. 4. Liberty is being able to do anything which does not harm another. 5. The law only has the right to prohibit actions that are harmful to society. 6. The law should be the same for everyone. 7. No man may be accused, arrested or detained except in cases determined by the law. 8. Every man is innocent until he has been declared guilty. 9. No one must be troubled on account of his opinions, even his religious beliefs, provided that their expression does not disturb public order under the law. 10. Free expression of thought and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man. Every citizen may speak, write and publish freely. 11. General taxation is necessary for the upkeep of the public force and for the expenses of the government. It should be borne equally by all the citizens in proportion to their means. 12. The right to property is inviolable and sacred.
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Source B
The following extract is about Bill of Rights taken from the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996..
1. Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. 2. Everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected. 3. Everyone has the right to life. 4. Everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, 5. No one may be subjected to slavery, servitude or forced labour. 6. Everyone has the right to privacy 7. Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience: religion, thought, belief and opinion. 8. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression 9. Everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions. 10. Everyone has the right to freedom of association 11. Every citizen is free to make political choices 12. No citizen may be deprived of citizenship. 13. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement 14. Every citizen has the right to choose their trade, occupation or profession freely 15. Everyone has the right to fair labour practices.
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SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS
1. Use sources A and B and complete the following table.
French Declaration of South African Bill of the Rights of Man and Rights the Citizen
Similarities
Differences
2. What can you deduct from the information in the above-mentioned table? Write a short paragraph.
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4. Transformation in Southern Africa after 1750.
4.1 The Mfecane: east of the Drakensberg
The Nguni word 'Mfecane' is usually translated as 'the crushing". The equivalent word in Sotho-Tswana is 'Difaqane' and it is usually translated as 'the scattering'. Historians use these terms Mfecane and Difaqane to indicate the violent period between about 1810 and 1830 among the African peoples of the South African interior.
Historians and the Mfecane Until at least the 1960s, historians who were pro- colonial, wrote about the Mfecane period as a time 'savage tribal warfare'. They said that this period had started with the rise of the Zulu kingdom and spread destruction across the Nguni lowveld and also through the highveld communities west of the Drakensberg (the Sotho-Tswana Difaqane). The Mfecane left huge areas of land deserted just at a time when white Boer trekkers from the Cape Colony were beginning to move into the interior in search of new land. These historians portrayed Africans as a destructive force who destroyed their own communities. On the other hand they portrayed the invading [white people as source of peace and order. Since the 1960s, this colonially-inspired version of history has been shown to be false, a deliberate distortion and gross exaggeration. Nevertheless, this interpretation of history has had a profound impact upon people's understanding of this period, not least because it was the official version on South African school syllabuses for most of the 20th Century.
Since the 1960s historians have re-examined and re-interpreted the Mfecane/Difaqane period. Some have gone as far as to suggest that the Mfecane was a complete myth, made up by colonists to demonise the Zulu and to excuse the colonial seizure of land. This version suggests that where there was any violence at all, it was largely at the instigation of Portuguese, Boer or British slave raiders and traders. However, this re-interpretation of the Mfecane appears to have taken the exaggeration to the other extreme. There is plenty of evidence for instance, of violent conflict between African people in the region. And there is no evidence that slave trading from Delagoa-Bay was of any significance until at least the mid-1820s. Therefore the slave trade could not have been a cause of the upheaval that began in the 1810s, although it may have "been a contributing factor in later conflicts in the region. Nevertheless, this extreme version has prompted historians to thoroughly re- examine the whole Mfecane/Difaqane period.
By the end of the 20th Century historians had come to recognise that 1810-30 was indeed a time of heightened African-initiated conflict. However, it was also a time of rational political development and state building. The reasons for the conflict were complex and the levels of depopulation had indeed been grossly exaggerated in the past.
Origins of the Mfecane Economic and political developments As we saw in Chapter 2, the northern Nguni peoples were mixed fanners. They hunted wild animals, herded cattle and cultivated crops. They took full advantage of the variety of soils and vegetation 26
between foothills, steep valleys and lowlands. The second half of the 18th Century was a period of unusually high rainfall. Pastures improved, livestock thrived and herds increased in size. Crop cultivation became more widespread with the introduction of maize, a South American crop recently brought to the region by Portuguese traders. It yielded heavier crops than the native African sorghum, as long as rainfall levels remained fairly high. The farmers brought more land into regular use, there was extra food, people were better fed and the population grew.
While population levels were low, herdsmen could still move their cattle freely between the summer and winter pastures of hills, valleys and lowlands. However, as the population grew and herds increased in size, competition for the best land developed between the herdsmen. People needed to control and protect a wide variety of grazing as well as well as agricultural land This may have been one reason why Nguni chiefdoms began to co-operate with each other to form larger political units or kingdoms.
Age-regiments As Nguni states grew in size so the role of age-regiments, amabutho, increased in importance. As we saw in Chapter 2, initiation ceremonies and amabutho were a way of promoting unity within the state at the same time as providing the chief or king with a large workforce or army. As competition for land increased, the role of this army became more important.
Hunting and trade The chief or king used the co-operative labour of the amabutho for organised hunting parties. Wild animals harboured the tsetse fly, carriers of fatal cattle (and human) disease. So the large-scale destruction of wild name by the amabutho made larger areas safe for grazing cattle. The hunting elephants also provided ivory for trade with European ships at Delagoa Bay. A chief or king who controlled this long distance trade could increase his wealth and reward his followers. This desire control the trade with Delagoa Bay may have been a further reason for the growth of larger states in the late 18th Century. Certainly the Tsonga peoples of the Delagoa Bay area developed strong centralised state systems with age-regiments for raiding and hunting in the period 1750-1800.
The Madlatule famine Around the turn of the century disaster struck. The period of high rainfall came to an end and for about ten years there was a prolonged drought. Crops failed, pasture withered and there was widespread famine. This became known as the Madlatule famine from the saying 'Makadle athule’; 'Let him eat and be quiet'.
Competition for scarce resources became severe as people raided each other for their cattle and their meagre stores of grain. The age-regiments were in the field permanently. Besides raiding cattle from neighbouring chiefdoms and protecting their own herds, amabutho were also needed for hunting wild animals, for meat as -well as for trade.
Northern Nguni kingdoms: Ndwandwe, Ngwane and Mthethwa We saw in Chapter 2 that between about 1750 and 1800, the process of state-building and conflict had been developing among the northern Nguni. By the early 1800s the northern Nguni region was dominated be three main kingdoms. The Ndwandwe, 27
under the leadership of Zwide, controlled the foothills and valleys between the Mkuze and Black Mfolozi Rivers. To their north lay the Ngwane, under Sobhuza of the Dlamini clan, while the south and south-east was dominated by Dingiswayo's Mthethwa. Besides the big three there were numerous smaller chiefdoms with varying degrees of independence, such as the Khumalo, Zulu, Qwabe, Hlube and Ngwane of Matiwane.
The Ndwandwe, being inland, were particularly badly affected by early 1800s. This may partly account for the severity of their attacks against their neighbours. Zwide used his army to destroy old chiefdoms, seize their livestock and incorporate young adults into his regiments. In this way he built up a powerful, centrally-controlled kingdom. Dingiswayo's kingdom, on the other hand, was not quite so firmly and centrally controlled. As the kingdom expanded, old chiefdoms were left in place, as long as their ruler paid regular tribute in cattle or grain and supported Dingiswayo with regiments. The Mthethwa's great strength lay in their control of coastal hunting forests and the trade with Delagoa Bay. In 1816 the Ndwandwe army invaded the agricultural valley of the Pongola, expelling the Ngwane and driving them northwards (see pages 65-6). Two years later Zwide turned his army against the Mthethwa, probably in an effort to seize control of Dingiswayo's hunting grounds and trade. What followed seemed like the decisive battle between the two great rival kingdoms, Dingiswayo was somehow separated from his army, captured and killed. Without their leader the Mthethwa regiments were easily scattered. For the moment Zwide was victorious. However almost immediately Ndwandwe dominance was challenged by an entirely new force which rose from the ruins of the Mthethwa: the kingdom of the Zulu under the leadership of Shaka.
Shaka and the rise of the Zulu kingdom Shaka (also spelt Tshaka or Chaka) was born in about 1787, the sun of the Zulu chief, Senzangakhona and a neighbouring Langeni princess, Nandi. The Zulu at the time were a minor clan, living around the upper Mhlathuze River. They were soon to be absorbed into the Mthethwa Kingdom. Shaka was brought up first among the Langeni, then the Qwabe and finally the Mthethwa. He joined a Mthethwa age- regiment where he distinguished himself as a brave and able soldier. Dingiswayo soon recognised his abilities and put him in charge of a regiment When Senzangakhona died in 1816, Shaka seized the Zulu throne from his brother Sigujana, with Dingiswayo's approval. The Zulu chiefdom was by then part of the Mthethwa kingdom.
Developments in military techniques and tactics The old method of Nguni warfare mainly involved cattle raids and a show of military strength. The aim was to get the enemy to acknowledge political authority and agree to pay tribute. When two armies faced each other they buried their long-handled spears until one side gave way. Casualties were not normally very heavy. The victorious side would then retire with a large booty of cattle. However, as warfare in the region became more common and fighting became more, ruthless, this kind of tactical show of strength and cattle raid was no longer sufficient.
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Because of Shaka’s great military success, he has often been credited with having invented all his military techniques himself. In fact most of the military innovations in that period were tried and developed by the Ndwandwe and Mthethwa over the previous decade or two. Zwide's Ndwandwe was the first in the region to develop the idea of 'total warfare’: those who failed to submit should be totally destroyed. The original defiant chiefdom should no longer exist. Thus defeated armies suffered huge slaughter. The survivors were incorporated into the age-regiments of the victor. Meanwhile their original homesteads were usually burned, and their women and children either killed or taken captive. All enemy livestock were rounded up and divided out among the regiments or sent to the king to form a new royal kraal. Under the old Nguni system, after initiation the amabutho were used as a military force. Its members served the chief or king for a limited period before being released and allowed to marry. By the 1810s the initiation ceremonies were being abolished and all young men were being pressed into amabutho on a long-term basis as permanent armies. The regiments were only disbanded and the men allowed to marry after they distinguished themselves in battle or were past their fighting prime. The regiments were trained regularly until they were extremely fit. Soldiers ran and fought barefoot to gain extra speed. Young boys were used to carry the soldiers' baggage. Each soldier earned a long shield and was armed with a short- handled stabbing spear as well as several longer throwing spears. The long shields protected them from the spears thrown by their opponents. They then rushed in close and used the stabbing spears to kill as many of the enemy as possible. Shaka's unique contribution was to bring all these military techniques together, develop and improve them, and make them more effective. In doing so he turned out the mostly highly-trained, disciplined, fit and efficient fighting force the region had ever seen. Shaka also refined the Ndwandwe tactic of the 'cow-horn' formation. As the bulk of the army faced the enemy, regiments were sent out on each side like two great horns. While the 'chest' advanced in the centre, the ‘horns' encircled the enemy and prevented their escape. In Shaka's campaigns full use was also made of spies, smoke signals and speed of movement to catch the enemy unawares and ensure complete victory. His soldiers developed great pride in their success. This was just as well, for in Shaka's army cowardice in battle was punishable by execution.
The Ndwandwe/Zulu War 1818-19 In 1818 Shaka seized the opportunity of Dingiswayo's defeat and quickly brought the chiefdoms of 'the Mthethwa kingdom under his control.
Zwide recognised the danger of this new threat to Ndwandwe domination, but Shaka's regiments drove off the first force Zwide sent against them. Towards the end of 1818 Zwide launched his whole army across the Mfolozi as he was determined to defeat this new Zulu kingdom. Shaka recognised the superior strength of his opponent and withdrew his entire people in the face of the Ndwandwe advance. As the Ndwandwe marched southwards, they found no livestock, craps or stores of grain to sustain them. At the same lime their army was worn down by frequent Zulu
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night assaults. Then, as the tired, hungry and weakened Ndwandwe army turned for home, Shaka launched his attack. The Ndwandwe suffered a terrible defeat. Shaka followed up his victory by sacking the undefended Ndwandwe capital. Ndwandwe refugees fled north of the Pongola. Zwide himself escaped to the region of the upper Nkomati River. Two of his generals, Soshangane and Zwangendaba, led the remnants of their army to the north of Delagoa Bay (see page 66-7). With this victory Shaka was left in command of a vast region from the Pongola in the north to the Tugela in the south. The expansion of the Zulu kingdom In the years that followed, Shaka's armies attacked chiefdoms that did not submit to his control. Though many were killed, many more were incorporated into the expanding Zulu state. By the mid-1820s Zulu power extended well south of the Tugela towards the Umzimkulu River. In 1824 Shaka's armies penetrated across the Umzimkulu and raided cattie from Faku's Mpondo. The fame of Shaka's army spread wide, and from way beyond the Zulu kingdom rulers sent tribute to avoid being attacked.
Trade Shaka kept strict control over trade, and all ivory hunted in the kingdom belonged to the king. To the north he kept the trade route open to Delagoa Bay where ivory was exchanged for beads and cloth. In 1824 a group of British traders and their Khoisan servants from the Cape arrived at Port Natal (present-day Durban) and began ivory trading with the Zulu kingdom. Shaka allowed them to remain and treated them as minor subject chiefs. He was very interested in their muzzle-loading guns, but did not think they would be a match for his regiments as they took so long to reload. The organisation of the Zulu kingdom The strength of the Zulu kingdom did not depend solely upon the success of Shaka's armies. Closely connected with the amabutho and hacking up their success in battle was the political reorganisation of the kingdom. Like the Tsonga and Ndwandwe before him, Shaka converted the loosely controlled chiefdoms and homesteads of the northern Nguni into a single, large, centralised kingdom in which all authority came directly from the king. The whole kingdom was built along military lines. All young adults between the ages of about 18 and 35 were drafted into male and female regiments. These were housed in a number of large regimental towns carefully placed around the kingdom. Each town encircled a huge cattle enclosure some 100 metres in diameter. Besides housing the cattle at night, the enclosure was also used for military parades and ceremonies during the day. The male and female regiments lived separately in the houses around the enclosure. Each town was allocated regimental cattle, usually those captured in warfare. The male regiments tended the cattle and fed off their milk and meat. The female regiments cultivated maize and sorghum for use in the town. The king appointed a military commander (induna) to command the male regiments. A female relative of the king was appointed to take charge of the female regiments of each town. She kept the king informed about the loyally of the induna and his regiments. Apart from regimental towns there were also small private homesteads. There the married men and women lived with their young children and elderly relatives. Marriage was only allowed when the king allowed the older soldiers to retire from
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full-time service. He then also released a female regiment for them to marry. The homesteads were still organised into chiefdoms and were expected to pay tribute to the king. But they posed no threat to the central authority of the king for he appointed their chief - often one of his own indunas - and all the young men of the chiefdom were incorporated into the king's amabutho when they were of age. Shaka's power was absolute. The indunas formed a central council, but in practice his councillors were careful never to offer advice which their king might not want to hear. A sense of unity and national pride within the kingdom was cultivated by the annual inxwala or first-fruit'; ceremony. Held at the capital at the height of the summer rainy season the inxwala was attended by regiments and representatives from all over the kingdom. During the ceremony the king's spiritual power as their leader was renewed and his subjects celebrated the prosperity and fruitfulness of the harvest and the kingdom in the year ahead. The centralisation of Zulu authority was so successful and the people so proud of Shaka's victories that all within kingdom- began to refer to themselves as 'Zulu'.
The end of Shaka's rule To a certain extent Shaka had always used fear of execution to instill loyalty. For instance, any person who lost their spear in battle or was wounded in the back was executed for cowardice. As Shaka became ever more powerful, the rate of executions increased and people were killed for even the pettiest of offences. After the death of Shaka's mother in 1827 many people were killed for not showing enough grief. It is possible that Shaka's mind became unbalanced. No one, not even his brothers or closest advisers, felt safe from his anger or displeasure. The regiments too were tiring of constant campaigns, of having to travel further and further afield to find the enemy, of meeting increasingly better-organised opposition, and of having to return to face Shaka's anger and the inevitable executions.
Shaka had never married though he-lived within a royal women's enclosure. Anyone who fell pregnant was immediately executed, for, it was said, Shaka feared the birth of a son and heir who might one day challenge his claim to the throne. But these precautions did not save him. In 1828 his half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangane, assassinated Shaka, The reign of Dingane
At the time of Shaka's death the army was away on a long and unsuccessful campaign against the new Gaza state of Soshangane in the region of Delagoa Bay (see page 67). By the time the army returned to the Zulu capital, Dingane had proclaimed himself king after he had murdered his co-conspirator, Mhlangane. The army accepted the death of Shaka for they had dreaded his anger at the failure of their recent campaign. To win-support, Dingane promised an end to war and executions and allowed many regiments to marry, The new king followed the absolutist principles of his brother, but Dingane was no Shaka. He lacked the inspiration, leadership qualities and military genius which had made the Zulu kingdom great under Shaka. And he did not keep his initial promises of peace for long. He turned on those whose loyalty he suspected and regular executions were quickly re-established. In this rasped. Dingane was more of a tyrant 31
than Shaka, It was not long before Dingane re-established the centralised regimental system. And Zulu armies were once more sent out on regular campaigns. In the 1830s Dingane sent his army against the Ndebele on the highveld (see Chapter 6) and against the Swazi to his north (see page 65-6). But the Zulu regiments did not have the successes they had achieved under Shaka's leadership. Their opponents were stronger and better organised. The small white trading settlement of Port Natal was considered part of the Zulu kingdom, and the British traders there had paid tribute to Shaka in recognition of his authority. During the reign of Dingane the traders began to act without reference to Zulu authority. They acted as an independent chiefdom, establishing an African settlement around them, with workers and fanners to provide them with food. The white people claimed that these Africans were refugees, fleeing to their protection from the violence of the Zulu kingdom. This soured relations between the Zulu and the white traders and in 1833 a Zulu army sacked the port. The white traders fled to the safety of a ship in the harbour and only returned after the Zulu army had withdrawn. Nevertheless, Dingane continued to be suspicious of white intentions towards his kingdom. And not without reason. In 1834 Boers from the Cape arrived to spy out the land around Port Natal for future white settlement. Three years later parties of Boers with their livestock, wagons and servants began to pour down the passes of the Drakensberg and onto the green pastures south of the Tugela. We will examine how Dingane and the Zulu faced this new challenge in Chapter 8. The Mfecane period was not only notable for its turbulence. It was a time of general political re-alignment. One feature of this was the rise of a number of new and powerful nations.
Sobhuza, Mswati and the founding of the Swazi nation
As we saw earlier, in 1816 Zwide's Ndwandwe had driven Sobhuza's Ngwane northwards from the Pongola valley. The Ngwane retreated to the mountains around the upper Nkomati River. When Zwide himself retreated to this region in 1819, Sobhuza led his people back southwards to the Usuthu valley. It was here that Sobhuza laid the foundations of the nation that was to take its name, Swazi, from his son and heir Mswati, Sobhuza and Mswati built their nation upon a careful mixture of conquest, diplomacy and marriage alliances. By the end of Mswati's reign in 1865 the Swazi kingdom rivalled the Zulu in power and importance.
Marriage as a nation-building policy As Sobhuza absorbed surrounding Nguni and Sotho chiefdoms, marriage was a useful tool for foreign diplomacy as well as for internal control. Sobhuza used marriage alliances to ward of attacks from both Zwide and Shaka. He married one of Zwide's daughters and sent two of his own daughters to Shaka. Though Shaka later had them killed for becoming pregnant, Sobhuza took no action to avenge their deaths. Within the kingdom itself Sobhuza allowed the various chiefdoms to remain intact provided they showed loyalty to him by paying tribute. The chiefs of the kingdom were also expected to marry daughters of the royal family. Through their bride
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wealth (lobola) Sobhuza received large numbers of cattle. The sons of these marriages would become heirs of the chiefdoms and in time they would also marry into the royal family. In this way Sobhuza used marriage to cement close personal relationships between himself and the local aristocracy. At the same time he increased his own personal wealth through receipt of Iobola.
Sotho influence on Swazi culture As a number of Sotho were absorbed into the growing kingdom, the Ngwane (Swazi) adopted certain Sotho cultural customs, One of these was the marriage of cousins, which was an important part of the ling's marriage policy. Another was the holding of libandla, a nation-wide general meeting summoned by the king: the Swazi equivalent of the Sotho pitso. In this way the Swazi king unlike the-Zulu, was answerable to the people for his good government Further Sotho influence was seen in the importance of the mother of the king, the Ndlhovukati ('the Great She-Elephant'). She was the king's closest adviser and ruled for him as regent if the king was under age, as in the case of Sobhuza's heir.
Sobhuza's foreign policy was to avoid conflict with his neighbours. He paid occasional tribute to the Zulu king. If attacked, his people retreated to the safety of mountain caves. Nevertheless they suffered a number of Zulu raids, especially from the armies of Dingane. During one of these raids, in 1839, Sobhuza died. A year later Dingane fled to Swaziland, having been defeated by his brother Mpande and the Boers of Natal (see pages 98-9). In line with Sobhuza's policy, the defeated Dingane was killed and a treaty of friendship was made with the new power in the region, the Boers. The reign of Mswati, 1839-65 When Sobhuza died Mswati was only 13 so his mother, Zwide's daughter, Thandile, ruled as regent. She reorganised the kingdom along more centralised Ndwandwe lines. The annual incwala (first-fruits) ceremony was introduced to raise the status of the king as well as to unify the kingdom. Age- regiments were formed across the nation and royal villages were set up around the country to control them, When Mswati took over in 1845 he faced opposition from his older brothers. Malambule rebelled and sought Zulu help, while Somcuba allied with the Boers who had recently settled around Lydenburg. It was ten years before Mswati was finally free from threat of foreign invasion. With a skilful mixture of warfare and diplomacy Mswati emerged with a powerful and relatively independent kingdom. He used a system of alliances to play off one strong neighbour against another. He allied with the Boers of Lydenburg to protect his people from invasion by the Zulu, and he allied himself with the new British authorities of Natal to protect his people from the Boers. Mswati's foreign policy was not all defensive. In the east his armies conquered as far as Delagoa Bay where he drove the Portuguese to the safely of their fort at Lourenco Marques (present-day Maputo). Soshangane and the Gaza state
After Zwide's defeat in 1819, the bulk of Ndwandwe refugees fled northwards into southern Mozambique where they regrouped around former chiefly rulers. There they became known as ‘Ngoni'. They reorganised themselves along Ndwandwe regimental lines and raided the local Tsonga and Chopi for grain and cattle. By the
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1830s Zwide's former general Soshangane, had emerged as the most powerful leader. Those Ngoni chiefdoms that did not submit to his authority were expelled from the region. In the decades that followed, Soshangane built up a powerful military state. His raids extended over a huge area from Delagoa Bay to the Zambezi Valley. The state was named after Soshangane's grandfather, Gaza. The original Ndwandwe, who formed the ruling class and controlled the regiments, considered themselves apart from and above the mass of subject peoples. They referred to themselves as 'Ngoni'. The ordinary 'Shangane' who made up the bulk of the central stale, were drawn from conquered peoples who were absorbed into the regiments. The third and lowest class were the mass of Tsonga and Chopi peasants who were never fully absorbed into the state. The regiments lived off raiding these peasant communities and demanding tribute from surrounding peoples. In this way they built up huge herds of cattle. The Portuguese trading settlements of Sofala, Inhambane and Lourenco Marques were also raided and forced to pay tribute for the right to trade. Further wealth came to the central stale through trade. The regiments hunted elephants for their ivory and this was traded in exchange for cloth. War captives were also sold to the Portuguese for export as slaves either for the French sugar plantations of Reunion and lle de Francs (Mauritius) from the 1840s, or across the Atlantic to Brazil. The Gaza state was weakened by four years of civil war after the death of Soshangane in 1858. It recovered in the 1860s, but after this control over the regiments began to decline. Nevertheless the Gaza state of Ngungunyane provided one of the major obstacles to final conquest of southern Mozambique in the l890s. The Ngoni of Central Africa Most notable of those expelled from southern Mozambique by Soshangane in the 1830s were the Jere-Ngoni led by Zwangendaba. They and two other Ngoni groups, the Maseko and Msene, moved north-westwards onto the Zimbabwe plateau. There they attacked the ancient Rosvi and Mutapa kingdoms (see page 39). They were organised along centralised regimental lines, and they absorbed, conquered peoples into their ranks. They lived off raids and forced tribute. After ravaging the plateau during the early 1830s, the Ngoni eventually moved north of the Zambesi. After raiding northwards, they settled as powerful independent chiefdoms in Malawi and south-western Tanzania. Hlubi and Ngwane Two important Nguni groups moved westwards across the Drakensberg in the early 1820s: the Hlubi of Mpangazitha and the Ngwane of Matiwane (not to be confused with the Ngwane of Sobhuza). These two chiefdoms had begun in the 19th Century among the foothills of the Drakensberg, on the edge of the expanding Ndwandwe and Mthethwa kingdoms. Matiwane responded to this potential threat by attempting to build his own amalgamation of chiefdoms around the valleys of the upper Tugela. The Hlubi resisted these attempts at absorption and suffered repeated cattle raids
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from Matiwane. By 1821 they had been stripped of virtually all their cattle. That year Mpangazitha led the bulk of the Hlubi across the Drakensberg where they fell upon the unsuspecting Sotho. The Ngwane meanwhile faced the threat of forceful absorption into the expanding Zulu kingdom. After suffering several Zulu attacks in 1822, Matiwane himself decided to lead his Ngwane across the Drakensberg and onto the Sotho highveld.
SOURCE 4A: An extract from a praise poem to Shaka
Dlungwana, son of Ndaba! Ferocious one of the Ndebele brigade, Who raged among the large kraals,- So that until dawn the huts were being turned upside-down. He who is famous as he sits, son of Menzi, He who beats but is not beaten, unlike water, Axe that surpasses other axes for sharpness; Shaka, I fear to say he is Shaka, Shaka he is-the chief of the Mashobas. He is the shrill whistle, the lion; He who armed in therefore who is like a madman, The madman who is in full view of the men. He who trudged wearily the plain going to Mfene; The voracious one of Senzangakhone, Spear that is red even on the handle.
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SOURCE 4B
Recorded oral tradition suggests that in the later 18th century political conflict was beginning to intensify not only in the Zululand and Natal region but also on the south- eastern fringes of the Kalahari desert among the chiefdoms of the southern Tswana. This region lay at the intersection of three long-distance trade routes: one leading to Delagoa Bay, another south to the Cape Colony, and the third north to the Portuguese sphere of activity in Angola, The main export was ivory; the main imports were manufactured goods like cloth, beads and metal items. The evidence suggests that trade along all three routes was increasing. Conflict over trade may have been an important cause of the wars which, according to tradition, were taking place among the southern Tswana at this time. - History Guidelines', KwaZulu-Natal Education Department
SOURCE 4C
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Bechuana ivory carrier. The ivory was a trade item, and of subsistence, as were cattle
SOURCE 4D
Dingiswayo also developed superior political organisation by abstaining from slaughter as he conquered other chiefdoms, leaving the conquered chiefs family intact, and replacing the conquered chief with a relative willing to co-operate with Dingiswayo. He developed superior conflict resolution by expanding the adjudication of quarrels. (That meant that members brought their grievances to him or other important officials and they gave judgement!) In this way Dingiswayo was able to conquer and begin the integration of 30 other Zulu chiefdoms, - Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
Why were the social changes made by Dingiswayo so important?
(Study these sources: to find out what important changes Dingiswayo introduced.
SOURCE 4D
The major groupings in the Pongola-Thukela region
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SOURCE 4F
In 1802 event occurred which pushed tensions between rival chiefdoms to breaking point: the rains dried up, and a devastating famine began to take hold of the country. As food stores emptied, wandering bands of marauders, desperate with hunger, fought battles for leftovers with members of already 'starving clans - and panic- stricken refugees fled to the camps of the Ndwandwe, the Ngwane and the Mthethwa. It was then that Dingiswayo returned to the Mthethwa tribe, ousted his brother who had taken control of the tribe, and made changes in the organisation of the tribe. Adapted from the Reader's Digest Illustrated History of South Africa
SOURCE 4G
Henry Francis Fynn established a trading post in Natal. He explored large parts of the country and negotiated with both Shaka and Dingaan for land. He wrote in his diary:
'The various tribes in the vicinity of Delagoa. are constantly engaged in petty warfare and wherever there is a Portuguese settlement, these contests are encouraged and often, one or other of the rival parties is aided by Portuguese soldiers/The prisoners taken by each tribe are purchased by the Portuguese to become slaves.'
SOURCE 4H Dingiswayo developed a superior centralised military, organisation by introducing the system of butha-ing - the drafting of young men from all villages and grouping them into-regiments by age rather than village. These regiments were called amabutho. The new military- organisation meant that the Mthethwa became decidedly stronger than their neighbours, most of whom were conquered or brought under submission as Dingiswayo expanded his power. Generally Dingiswayo spared women and children in his course of conquest, and frequently allowed the local ruling family to remain in power if their loyalty could be secured. Their menfolk were conscripted into Dingiswayo's amabutho, thereby securing the integration of the chiefdoms into the Mthethwa confederacy. -An Illustrated History of South Africa, ed Cameron.
SOURCE 4I Dingiswayo also developed superior political organisation by abstaining from slaughter as he conquered other chiefdoms, leaving the conquered chiefs family intact, and replacing the conquered chief with a relative willing to co-operate with Dingiswayo. He developed superior conflict resolution by expanding the adjudication of quarrels. (That meant that members brought their grievances to him or other important officials and they gave judgement!) In this way Dingiswayo was able to conquer and begin the integration of 30 other Zulu chiefdoms, Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond 38
SOURCE 4J
This is a picture showing the Amabutho
SOURCE 4J
The Zulu army under Cetshwayo kaMpande was so powerful - it was made up of approximately 30 000 warriors - that it defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879.
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SOURCE 4K
A map showing the scatterings of tribes
SOURCE 4L: An illustration showing thousands of people becoming refugees
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SOURCE 4M
Reverend Francis-Owen, a missionary in Port Natal,-remarked-in his diary: 'The policy pursued by the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay is keeping the nations in a state of constant hostility among themselves and if the conquerors refuse to sell their plunder at the prices fixed upon by the purchaser, they are instantly by the arms of the factory. Wars are excited solely to make slaves to pay for merchandise ... sufficiently to keep the neighbouring tribes in a ferment and continual state of warfare,'
SOURCE 4N
When first observed by white settlers, the Zulus were divided into dozens of chiefdoms. During the late 1700s, as population pressure rose, fighting between the chiefdoms became increasingly intense. Among all these chiefdoms the main problem of creating a centralised power structure was solved almost successfully, around 1807, by Dingiswayo, who gained control of the Mthethwa chiefdom by killing a rival. -Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
SOURCE 4O A photograph showing Zulu impis clad in military "uniform"
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SOURCE 4P
The capturing of slaves
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5. Colonial expansion after 1750
5.1 Case Study
TOPIC 5: COLONIAL EXPANSION AFTER 1750.
Boer response to British control: trekking into the interior.
Key Question: Why did the Afrikaners leave the Cape Colony to settle in the interior?
Skills: Extracts and interpret information from a number of sources
Concepts:
Historical sources and evidence
Cause and effect
Change and continuity
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Case Study: Moshoeshoe - Nation Builder
Apart from Shaka, who built up the Zulu kingdom, there were other chiefs in southern Africa who centralised large groups: leaders like Mzilikazi, who established the Ndebele; Sobhuza, who established the Swazi kingdom; and Moshoeshoe, who established a 'mountain kingdom'. Each one of these groups acquired an identity of its own, but unfortunately we cannot study all of them in detail. We have therefore chosen to investigate Moshoeshoe (sometimes spelt Mshweshwe) and the nation he established at Thaba Bosiu, the present-day Lesotho.
Read the story of Moshoeshoe at least twice.
From village headman to founder of a nation Like most leaders of his time, Moshoeshoe rose to prominence from humble beginnings. Starting off as a simple village headman, he expanded his power to become the founder and first paramount chief of the Sotho. His first big chance came in about 1820 when he moved his people to the slopes of the Buthe Buthe Mountains, from where he stood firm against the first raids from the edge of the Drakensberg... Born in 1786, he received the name Moshoeshoe from a song of praise dedicated to him after he had captured a large number of cattle during a daring raid on a neighbouring chiefdom. In the song, he was likened to a barber, as his name supposedly imitated the sound made by a knife shaving off a beard or hair. Moshoeshoe was a fine strategist and (when he needed to be) an unashamed opportunist*. For instance, when his Ngwane neighbours became a threat, he threw his energies into developing good relations with the Zulu people by sending gifts to their king, Shaka. Then, when the gifts stopped arriving, Shaka was told that the Ngwane were hindering Moshoeshoe from sending them. Shaka immediately attacked the Ngwane, defeating Moshoeshoe's greatest enemy. To avoid confrontation and war, Moshoeshoe would attempt to buy off raiders with offerings of cattle. In 1822, when he was attacked by a Ngwane raiding party, he retreated and persuaded their leader Matiwane, to accept a gift of cattle. Moshoeshoe's attitude caused Matiwane to refer to him scornfully as 'little Sotho'. Despite his caution, Moshoeshoe and his followers could not escape the conflict. In the winter of 1824, they were besieged at Buthe Buthe by MaNthatisi's Tlokwa, and fled to the more secure mountain base of Thaba Bosiu ('mountain of the night'). There was plenty of water in this lofty stronghold, and the steep cliffs were a deterrent against attack. But Thaba Bosiu was also dangerously close to Matiwane's headquarters, with the result that Moshoeshoe thought it wise to maintain diplomatic ties with the Ngwane chief. Come 1827, and a Zulu force swept across the Drakensberg, capturing large numbers of Ngwane cattle. Intent on rebuilding his herds, Matiwane attacked his Sotho neighbours the following year. But this time he met with a spirited resistance and the Ngwane were forced to retreat southwards. As a result, Moshoeshoe gained control of a large area of the Ngwane territory. When Matiwane was finally defeated 44
by a Cape colonial force led by Henry Somerset, many refugees from his forces returned to the southern highveld to seek the protection of his former enemy. After eliminating the Ngwane threat, Moshoeshoe maintained an uncertain peace with the Tlokwa, his main rivals, but was repeatedly attacked by marauding bands of Kora, and in 1831, by the Ndebele, whom he defaced in battle. Throughout this period of attack and counter-attack Moshoeshoe continued to consolidate and expand his chiefdom. He offered protection and a place to live to displaced leaders and their followers (and in return expected their protection). In this way he also created a buffer state against outside invaders. By 1840 his followers numbered 40 000 - a remarkable achievement in the time of the upheaval that was the Difaqane. Inevitably, the expansion of White society into the interior led to clashes between Moshoeshoe and both the Voortrekkers and the British, who annexed his territory in 1868. He died in 1870 aged 84. - Reader's Digest Illustrated History of South Africa
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SOURCES:
Source A
A map of Southern Africa from 1800 to 1850 taken from IN SEARCH OF HISTORY Grade 10, J. Bottaro et al
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Source B
The following extracts are taken from LOOKING INTO THE PAST, Grade 10, C. Dyer, J. Nesbit et al. These extracts from the Manifesto of Piet Retief were published in the Grahams town Journal on 2 February, 1837. The Manifesto explains why the Voortrekkers wanted to leave the Cape and spells out their hopes and intentions for the future.
We despair of saving the colony from those evils which threaten it by the turbulent and dishonest conduct of vagrants, who are allowed to infest the country in every part; nor do we see any prospect of peace or happiness for our children in any country thus distracted by internal commotions.
We complain of the severe losses we have been forced to sustain by the emancipation of our slaves.
We complain of the continual system of plunder which we have ever endured from the Caffres and other coloured classes.
We solemnly declare that we quit this colony with a desire to lead a more quiet life than we have heretofore done. We will not molest any people, nor deprive them of the smallest property, but, if attacked, we shall consider ourselves fully justified in defending our persons and effects, to the utmost of our ability, against every enemy.
We propose, in the course of our journey, and on arriving at the country in which we shall permanently reside, to make known to the native tribes our intentions, and our desire to live in peace and friendly intercourse with them.
We quit this colony under the full assurance that the English Government has nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without interference in future
.
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Source C
The following source is a painting depicting Trekboers on their way to the interior taken from LOOKING INTO THE PAST, Grade 10, C. Dyer, J. Nisbet et al.
Source D
The following source is a painting of a trekker couple and their servants by C. Bell from about 1836, taken from IN SEARCH OF HISTORY Grade 10, J. Bottaro et al
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SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS Study Sources A, B, C, and D and answer the following questions. 1. Refer to Source A. 1.1 Name the two Trekker Republics that has been established by 1850. 2. Read through Source B. 2.1 Identify one political, one economic and one social reason why the Voortrekkers left the Cape colony. 3. Refer to Source C. 3.1 How does Source C reflect the way of life of the Voortrekkers? 4. Look carefully at Source D. 4.1 What message does Source D convey about social relationships during the Great Trek?
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6. The South African War and Union of South Africa
6.1 The War (9 October 1899 - 31 May 1902)
The flag of the Boer Republic of the Orange Free State
On 9 October 1899 the SAR issued an ultimatum to Britain and two days later, on 11 October the war was officially declared between Britain and the Boers. The British forces thought that the war would be won easily, but they were wrong. The two Boer republics that were involved in the conflict were the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The first phase of the war was one of the set-piece battles, but from July 1900 onwards the Boers changed tactics and they conducted a very efficient guerrilla war that kept nearly 500 000 British troops occupied until 1902. The Boers were conquered in the end, but a great deal of property and lives were lost on both sides. It was the bloodiest, longest and most expensive war Britain engaged in between 1815 and 1915. It cost more than 200 million pounds and more than 22 000 men were lost to Britain. The Boers lost over 34 000 people. More than 15 000 black people were killed.
The British government was embarrassed by the army's initial lack of success against what they called a backward, incompetent and rural enemy. They underestimated the Boers who only had 27 000 men in their commandos. During the early stages of the war. Britain suffered a number of significant defeats.
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6.2 The Boer offensive October 1899 – November 1899
Cartoon: The Transvaal and the Orange Free State are seen as virgins, tied to a burning stake, which is lit by John Bull, the British version of America’s Uncle Sam. All of Europe's powers seem to be standing by, watching, but not helping. (From Amsterdamsche Courant, 23 March 1900)
The first battle took place at Talana, near Dundee in northern Natal on 29 October 1899. The battle was indecisive because both generals divided their forces. The outcome of the battle was not clear. On 30 October 1899 the second battle took place at Elandslaagte, and here the British army won. Other battles took place on the same day at Modderspruit and Nicholson’s Nek and here the Boers won. British forces went on the defensive and were besieged in Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking.
This war was much longer than the First Anglo-Boer War and more battles took place. During “Black Week” in December 1899 the British army lost many men. At this stage British army was divided into 3 main groups under General Sir Redvers Buller, who was the British commander-in-chief in South Africa at the beginning of the war, Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen and Lieutenant-General W F Gatacre, who controlled forces in the Cape Colony. The battles during "Black week" were at Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. Buller suffered a humiliating loss and was 51
replaced by Major-General Lord Kitchener on 16 December 1899, although he remained in charge in Natal. Battles at Spionkop on 24 January 1900 and Vaalkrans on 7 February 1900 were also Boer victories.
6.3 The British Offensive
After “Black Week” the British army sent for reinforcements from Britain and on 10 January 1900 the new soldiers arrived in Cape Town with Major-General Lord Kitchener and Lord Roberts. After the arrival of the extra men the British army quickly moved inland, defeating the Boers as they travelled.
The sieges in Kimberley ended on 15 February 1900, and the Ladysmith followed less than a fortnight later.
On 13 March 1900 the British army occupied Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State and on 1 June 1900 they took Johannesburg. They then marched into on Pretoria four days later and occupied the town on 5 June 1900. After Bloemfontein and Pretoria had fallen to Britain, as many as 13 900 Boers laid down their arms because they were so demoralized. Some felt it was hopeless to continue the war, while other Boers refused to surrender choosing to pursue guerilla war.
Starving Boer child in a concentration camp. © Anglo Boer War museum
In March 1901 Lord Kitchener, the commander of the British forces, decided cut off the supply of food to the Boers. They were being supported by the people on the farms so he initiated the “scorched earth” policy. About 30 000 Boer farmhouses and 52
more than 40 towns were destroyed. He also had animals like horses, cattle and sheep, killed. Children, women and black people were put in concentration camps.
Towards the end of the war there were more than 40 camps housing 116 000 white women and children, with another 60 camps housing 115 000 black people. These camps were overcrowded, the captives underfed and the conditions poor. There were limited medical supplies and staff and diseases like measles, whooping cough, typhoid fever, diphtheria and dysentery resulted in 1 in every 5 children dying. 26 370 white women and children died in the concentration camps, 81% of the casualties were children. It is estimated that more than 15 000 black people also died in the separate black concentration camps.
Further reading:
• Timeline: The plight of women, children and the elderly in the White Anglo- Boer concentration camps. • Timeline: The plight of women, children and the elderly in the Black Anglo- Boer concentration camps.
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The South African War (9 October 1899 - 31 May 1902)
Role of Blacks in the South African War
Introduction
The South African War of 1899-1902 was essentially a ‘White man’s’ war, fought to determine which white authority had real power in South Africa but other populations groups like the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazis and Basotho and Sothos were also involved in the war. Although there was an unwritten agreement between the Boers and the British that Blacks would not be armed in the war, neither side adhered to this agreement.
It should be mentioned that the South African war was fought in a region where four fifths of the population was Black and that the conflict was over land that belonged to the various African tribes
Most politically conscious Blacks, Coloureds and Indian groups in South Africa believed that the defeat of the Boers would mean more political, educational and commercial opportunities would be afforded to them. They hoped that the Cape franchise would be extended throughout South Africa. The Indian community was encouraged by MK Gandhi to show loyalty to Britain if they wished to achieve their freedom. Thus, the Ambulance Corps was formed in Natal, was and became active on the British side during the early months of the war.
Reasons for not wanting to arm the Black population
The British believed that the Boers would be easily defeated and that any military collaboration from groups of Blacks would not be decisive in winning the war. In addition, it was commonly believed by both sides that the military methods of the Black people were more brutal than those of white people and that white women and children would not be shown mercy by Black soldiers. Another reason for not wanting Blacks to be given arms was the fear that this would increase the possibility of Black resistance to white control in the future. However, as soon as the war started, it was evident that Black people played an indispensable part in military operations.
On the Boer side
Republican law forbade the carrying of arms by Blacks, but because many Boers were pressed into service, they allowed their servants to carry arms. Black cooperation in the war enabled a larger number of whites to serve actively in war operations on both sides.
According to the law of the Republics, all males between the ages of 16 and 60 were eligible for war service, and although the law did not refer to race it was generally applied to the white population only. Provision was made for coloureds to be called up, but in most cases, this meant an employee going along with his employer.
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On the Boer side, Black people assisted at various levels. Most were assigned to the roles of wagon drivers or servants. Blacks were also used to stand in on farms of Boers who were commandeered to the war. Many were used as “agterryers” who would tend to chores at the camp or see to the horses. On the battlefield, the ‘agterryer’ would carry spare ammunition and spare rifles and even load up the rifles for his master.
The Tswana people were conscripted by the Boers to help maintain the siege of Mafeking. Many armed Blacks and Coloureds also assisted during the siege of Ladysmith.
Refusal on the part of the Blacks to serve could see them punished with a fine of 5 pounds, imprisonment or 25 lashes. Although there is no accurate figure, some sources say that at least 10 000 Black men accompanied the Boer Commandos and, as a rule, labour conscripted by the Boers received no pay.
On the British side
It was estimated that about 100 000 Blacks were employed by the British army and more than 10 000 received arms. The British army used Black workers for carrying dispatches and messages, to take care of their horses and assist in the veterinary department. They also were used to do sanitary work and construct forts. Armed Black sentries guarded blockhouses and were used to raid Boer farms for cattle.
In 1900, 7000 Blacks took part in General French’s march to Machadodorp in the Transvaal. Over 5000 others, mostly transport drivers and leaders, were employed by Lord Roberts’ columns on his journey to Bloemfontein.
The British army also provided the Kgatla chief and Kgama of the Ngwato with 6000 and 3000 rounds of ammunition respectively, to defend the Bechuanaland Protectorate. In the Transkei, 4000 Mfengu and Thembu levies were assembled to ward off any attempt at invasion by the Boers or to suppress any Boer uprising. The Boer occupation of Kuruman was initially resisted by a small force of local Coloured and white policemen. In Mafeking, over 500 Blacks took part in the town’s defence during the siege and 200 more enrolled as special constables in Hershel to discourage incursions into the area by Free State commandos.
In Natal, the Zulu Native Police were armed with rifles and a number of them were mounted. However, after the war, Blacks who had served as scouts or fighting men were denied campaign medals which they were entitled to.
It is apparent that both sides would deny that armed Blacks served with them, each accusing the other of doing so, However, in April 1902, after much pressure, Lord Kitchener finally admitted that some 10 053 Black men were issued with arms by the British army. The Boers cited the arming of Blacks on the side of the British as one of the major reasons for discontinuing the war.
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Reasons for Blacks entering the war
Black poverty was a major spur to enlistment in the British army. For many Black families, the war had disastrous consequences as it disrupted the migrant labour system, a development that deprived them of an income used to buy grain, and pay taxes and rent. Also, the return of thousands of men to the rural areas increased the pressure on food resources in some already overpopulated districts of Natal, Zululand and the Transkei. In the Transvaal and Orange Free State Britain’s scorched earth campaign destroyed the livelihoods of many thousands of Blacks. In 1901, separate concentration camps for Blacks were established to accommodate those who were uprooted from the land. Most of these were from Boer farms, where they resided as labour tenants, cash tenants or share-croppers. Those who entered the camps had very little or no food. Only in exceptional cases were free rations provided, thus most Black men had no choice but to accept work in the British army in order to survive. By April 1902, over 13 000 refugees were found to be working in the British army. As a result, the camps were mainly filled with women, children, the elderly and the infirm.
The British recruited on the basis of a three-month contract with a monthly wages of 40 to 50 shillings. A major consolation to Blacks entering the British army was the fact that rations were usually included.
Concentration Camps
Many Black people were held in concentration camps around the country. The British created camps for Blacks from the start of the war. Entire townships and even mission stations were transferred into concentration camps. The men were forced into labour service and by the end of the war there were some 115 000 Blacks in 66 camps around the country.
Maintenance spent on white camps were a lot higher than that spent on the Black camps due to the fact that Blacks had to build their own huts and even encouraged to grow their own food. Less than a third of Black interns were provided with rations. Black people were practically being starved to death in these camps.
Blacks in the concentration camps were not given adequate food and did not have proper medical care, which resulted in many deaths. Those in employment were forced to pay for their food. Water supplies were often contaminated, and the conditions under which they were housed were appalling, resulting in thousands of deaths from dysentery, typhoid and diarrhoea.
The death toll at the end of the war in the Black concentration camps was recorded as 14154, but it is believed that the actual number was considerably higher. Most of the fatalities occurred amongst the children.
After the War
After the war the Black camps remained under military control even after the white camps had been transferred to civilian control. 56
Further reading:
• Timeline: The plight of women, children and the elderly in the Black Anglo- Boer concentration camps.
The South African War (9 October 1899 - 31 May 1902)
The Aftermath of the war
Melrose House, Pretoria
The Second Anglo-Boer War resulted in heavy loss of life for both the Boers and the British. The Boers had lost the war and peace negotiations begun in March 1902. On 11 April 1902 preliminary meetings among Boer representatives began in Klerksdorp, as well as with Lord Kitchener in Pretoria. Milner tried to prevent the talks because he felt that the Boers should surrender completely.
15 May 1902 saw the meeting of 30 representatives from each side meet at Vereeniging and by 31 May 1902 the peace agreement was official. The document was signed in Pretoria at Melrose House.
The Treaty of Vereeniging
Some Boers felt that it was worthwhile to continue fighting, but they didn’t have enough resources to do so. The Transvaal and Orange Free State leaders also agreed not to divide the two former republics.
The Peace Treaty of Vereeniging included the following points:
• Uitlanders could return to the Transvaal. • The Boers had to lay down their weapons. • Dutch would still be taught in schools and used in courts. • A civil government would replace the military administration. • Self-government would be promoted. • Voting rights for black people would only be discussed once the two new colonies could govern themselves. • Financial help would be provided for poor citizens. • The two new colonies’ debts would be paid.
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39 000 Uitlanders returned to the Transvaal and the mines opened again. This also meant that the two new British colonies could generate their own income and become financially independent.
We have scanned in a copy of the original 'Peace Treaty of Vereeniging'.
Women & Children in White Concentration Camps during the Anglo-Boer War
Due to the fact that Black People were detained in separate camps, the issue of Black Concentration Camps is dealt with in another chronology.
Boer women, children and men unfit for service were herded together in concentration camps by the British forces during Anglo-Boer War 2 (!899-1902). The first two of these camps (refugee camps) were established to house the families of burghers who had surrendered voluntarily, but very soon, with families of combatant burgers driven forcibly into camps established all over the country, the camps ceased to be refugee camps and became concentration camps. The abhorrent conditions in these camps caused the death of 4 177 women, 22 074 children under sixteen and 1 676 men, mainly those too old to be on commando, notwithstanding the efforts of an English lady, Emily Hobhouse, who tried her best to make the British authorities aware of the plight of especially the women and children in the camps.
1900 September, Major-Gen J.G. Maxwell announces that “… camps for burghers who voluntarily surrender are being formed at Pretoria and Bloemfontein.” This signals the start of what was to evolve into the notorious Concentration Camp Policy. 22 September, As result of a military notice on this date, the first two ‘refugee' camps are established at Pretoria and Bloemfontein. Initially the aim was to protect the families of burghers who had surrendered voluntarily and their 58
families by the institution of these camps. As the families of combatant burghers were also driven into these and other camps, they ceased to be ‘refugee' camps and became ‘concentration' camps. 20 December, A proclamation issued by Lord Kitchener states that all burghers surrendering voluntarily, will be allowed to live with their families in Government Laagers until the end of the war and their stock and property will be respected and paid for.
21 December, Contrary to the announced intention, Lord Kitchener states in a memorandum to general officers the advantages of interning all women, children and men unfit for military services, also Blacks living on Boer farms, as this will be “the most effective method of limiting the endurance of the guerrillas… “The women and children brought in should be divided in two categories, viz.: 1st. Refugees, and the families of Neutrals, non-combatants, and surrendered Burghers. 2nd. Those whose husbands, fathers and sons are on Commando. The preference in accommodation, etc. should of course be given to the first class. With regard to Natives, it is not intended to clear … locations, but only such and their stock as are on Boer farms.” 1901 21 January, Emily Hobhouse, an English philanthropist and social worker who tried to improve the plight of women and children in the camps, obtains permission to visit concentration camps. Lord Kitchener, however, disallows visits north of Bloemfontein.
24 January, Emily Hobhouse visits Bloemfontein concentration camps and is appalled by the conditions. Due to limited time and resources, she does not visit the camp for Blacks, although she urges the Guild of Loyal Women to do so.
30 January, Pushing panic-stricken groups of old men, women and children, crowded in wagons and preceded by huge flocks of livestock in front of them, French's drive enters the south-eastern ZAR (Transvaal).
31 January, Mrs Isie Smuts, wife of Gen. J.C. Smuts, is sent to Pietermaritzburg and placed under house arrest by the British military authorities, despite her pleas to be sent to concentration camps like other Boer women. Concentration camps have been established at Aliwal North, Brandfort, Elandsfontein, Heidelberg, Howick, Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Viljoensdrift, Waterfall North and Winburg.
25 February, A former member of the Free State Volksraad, H.S. Viljoen, and five other prisoners are set free from the Green Point Camp near Cape Town. They are sent to visit Free State concentration camps with the intention of influencing the women in the camps to persuade their husbands to lay down their arms. They are met with very little success.
27 February, Discriminatory food rations – 1st class rations for the families of ‘hands-uppers' and 2nd class for the families of fighting burghers or those who
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refuse to work for the British – are discontinued in the ‘Transvaal' concentration camps.
28 February, Concentration camps have been established at Kromellenboog, Middelburg, Norvalspont, Springfontein, Volksrust, and Vredefort Road.At the Middelburg conference between Supreme Commander Lord Kitchener and Commandant-General Louis Botha, Kitchener comments to Lord Roberts, now Commander-in Chief at the War Office in London: “They [referring to the Burghers S.K.] evidently do not like their women being brought in and I think it has made them more anxious for peace.” The conference is discussing terms of a possible peace treaty. Sir Alfred Milner leaves Cape Town for Johannesburg to take up his duties as administrator of the ‘new colonies'.
1 March, Concentration camps in the ‘Orange River' and ‘Transvaal' Colonies are transferred to civil control under Sir Alfred Milner. 4 March, Emily Hobhouse visits the Springfontein concentration camp. 6 March, Discriminatory food rations are also discontinued in the ‘Orange River Colony' camps. 8 March, Emily Hobhouse visits the Norvalspont concentration camp. 12 March, Emily Hobhouse visits the Kimberley concentration camp. 6 April, Emily Hobhouse returns to Kimberley 9 April, Emily Hobhouse visits the Mafeking concentration camp. 12 April, Emily Hobhouse witnesses the clearing of Warrenton and the dispatch of people in open coal trucks. 13 April, Emily Hobhouse returns to Kimberley, witnessing the arrival of the people removed from Warrenton at the Kimberley camp, where there are only 25 tents available for 240 people. 20 April, The towns of Parys and Vredefort and many outlying farms have been cleared of inhabitants and supplies. The women and children have been removed to concentration camps. 21 April, Emily Hobhouse arrives in Bloemfontein. 23 April, Sir Alfred Milner refuses to issue a permit to Emily Hobhouse authorising her to travel north of Bloemfontein. 4 May, Emily Hobhouse arrives in Cape Town. 7 May, Emily Hobhouse leaves for Britain after an extended fact-finding tour of the concentration camps. 14 June, Speaking at a dinner party of the National Reform Union in England, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, leader of the Liberal opposition, says the war in South Africa is carried on by methods of barbarism. 17 June, David Lloyd-George in England condemns the concentration camps and the horrors inflicted on women and children in the camps in South Africa. He warns, “A barrier of dead children's bodies will rise between the British and Boer races in South Africa.”
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18 June, Emily Hobhouse's report on concentration camps appear under the title, “To the S.A. Distress Fund, Report of a visit to the camps of women and children in the Cape and Orange River Colonies”. Summarising the reasons for the high fatality rate, she writes, “Numbers crowded into small tents: some sick, some dying, occasionally a dead one among them; scanty rations dealt out raw; lack of fuel to cook them; lack of water for drinking, for cooking, for washing; lack of soap, brushes and other instruments of personal cleanliness; lack of bedding or of beds to keep the body off the bare earth; lack of clothing for warmth and in many cases for decency …” Her conclusion is that the whole system is cruel and should be abolished. 26 June, Lord Kitchener, in a telegram to Milner: “I fear there is little doubt the war will now go on for considerable time unless stronger measures are taken … Under the circumstances I strongly urge sending away wives and families and settling them somewhere else. Some such unexpected measure on our part is in my opinion essential to bring war to a rapid end.” 27 June, The British War Department promises to look into Emily Hobhouse's suggestions regarding improvements to the concentration camps. 30 June, The official camp population is 85 410 for the White camps and the deaths reported for June are 777. 15 July, Dr K. Franks, the camp doctor at the Mafeking concentration camp reports that the camp is “overwhelmed” by 1 270 women and children brought in after sweeps on the western ZAR (Transvaal). Lack of facilities ads to the hardships encountered by the new arrivals. 16 July, The British Colonial Office announces the appointment of a Ladies Commission to investigate the concentration camps in South Africa. The commission, whose members are reputed to be impartial, is made up as follows: Chairlady Mrs Millicent G. Fawcett, who has recently criticised Emily Hobhouse in the Westminster Gazette; Dr Jane Waterson, daughter of a British general, who recently wrote against “the hysterical whining going on in England” while “we feed and pamper people who had not even the grace to say thank you for the care bestowed on them”; Lady Anne Knox, wife of Gen. Knox, who is presently serving in South Africa; Nursing sister Katherine Brereton, who has served in a Yeomanry Hospital in South Africa; Miss Lucy Deane, a government factory inspector on child welfare; Dr the Hon Ella Scarlett, a medical doctor. One of the doctors is to marry a concentration camp official before the end of their tour. 20 July, Commenting on confiscation of property and banishment of families, St John Brodrick, British secretary of State for War, writes to Kitchener: “… Your other suggestion of sending the Boer women to St Helena, etc., and telling their husbands that they would never return, seems difficult to work out. We cannot permanently keep 16,000 men in ring fences and they are not a marketable commodity in other lands …”
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25 July, Since 25 June, Emily Hobhouse has addressed twenty-six public meetings on concentration camps, raising money to improve conditions. 26 July, Emily Hobhouse again writes to Brodrick asking for reasons for the War Department's refusal to include her in the Ladies Commission. If she cannot go, “it was due to myself to convey to all interested that the failure to do so was due to the Government”. 27 July, St John Rodrick replies to Emily Hobhouse's letter, “The only consideration in the selection of ladies to visit the Concentration Camps, beyond their special capacity for such work, was that they should be, so far as is possible, removed from the suspicion of partiality to the system adopted or the reverse.” 31 July, The officially recorded camp population is 93 940 for the White camps and the deaths for July stands at 1 412. 16 August, General De la Rey protests to the British against the mistreatment of women and children. 20 August, Col. E.C. Ingouville-Williams' column transports Gen. De la Rey's mother to the Klerksdorp concentration camp. A member of the Cape Mounted Rifles notes in his diary: “She is 84 years old. I gave her some milk, jam, soup, etc. as she cannot eat hard tack and they have nothing else. We do not treat them as we ought to.” 31 August, The officially recorded camp population for White camps is 105 347 and the camp fatalities for August stand at 1 878. 13 September, The Merebank Refugee Camp is established near Durban in an attempt to reduce the camp population in the Republics. Its most famous inmates are to be Mrs De Wet and her children. 30 September, Cornelius Broeksma is executed by an English firing squad in Johannesburg after having been found guilty of breaking the oath of neutrality and inciting others to do the same. A fund is started in Holland for his family and for this purpose a postcard with a picture of himself and his family is sold, bearing the inscription: “Cornelius Broeksma, hero and martyr in pity's cause. Shot by the English on 30th September 1901, because he refused to be silent about the cruel suffering in the women's camps.”The officially recorded camp population of the White camps is 109 418 and the monthly deaths for September stand at 2 411. 1 October, Emily Hobhouse again urges the Minister of War, “in the name of the little children whom I have watched suffer and die” to implement improvements in the concentration camps. 26 October, As the commandoes in the Bethal district, Transvaal, become wise to Benson's night attacks, his success rate declines and he contents himself with ‘ordinary clearing work' – burning farms and herding women, children, old men and other non-combatants with their livestock and vehicles.
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27 October, Emily Hobhouse arrives in Table Bay on board the SS Avondale Castle, but is refused permission to go ashore by Col. H. Cooper, the Military Commandant of Cape Town. 29 October, Reverend John Knox Little states in the United Kingdom: “Among the unexampled efforts of kindness and leniency made throughout this war for the benefit of the enemy, none have surpassed the formation of the Concentration Camps”. 31 October, Despite letters of protest to Lord Alfred Milner, Sir Walter Hely- Hutchinson and Lord Ripon, Emily Hobhouse, although unwell, is forced to undergo a medical examination. She is eventually wrapped in a shawl and physically carried off the Avondale Castle. She is taken aboard the Roslin Castle for deportation under martial law regulations. The officially recorded camp population of White camps is 113 506 and the deaths for October stand at 3 156. 1 November, Miss Emily Hobhouse, under deportation orders on board the Roslin Castle writes to Lord Kitchener: “… I hope in future you will exercise greater width of judgement in the exercise of your high office. To carry out orders such as these is a degradation both to the office and the manhood of your soldiers. I feel ashamed to own you as a fellow-countryman.”And to Lord Milner: “Your brutal orders have been carried out and thus I hope you will be satisfied. Your narrow incompetency to see the real issues of this great struggle is leading you to such acts as this and many others, straining [staining S.K.] your own name and the reputation of England…” 7 November, The Governor of Natal informs St John Brodrick that the wives of Pres. Steyn, General Paul Roux, Chief Commandant C.R. de Wet, Vice President Schalk Burger and Gen. J.B.M. Hertzog, the last four all presently in Natal, are to be sent to a port, other than a British port, outside South Africa. Lord Milner, referring to the concentration camps, writes to British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain: “I did not originate this plan, but as we have gone so far with it, I fear that a change now might only involve us in fresh and greater evils.” 15 November, In his ‘General Review of the Situation in the Two New Colonies', Lord Milner reports to Chamberlain, “… even if the war were to come to an end tomorrow, it would not be possible to let the people in the concentration camps go back to their former homes. They would only starve there. The country is, for the most part, a desert…” 16 November, On being questioned by St John Brodrick on his motivations for proposing the deportation of prominent Boer women, Kitchener cancels his orders. 21 November, Referring to a ‘scorched earth' raid, Acting State President S.W. Burgers and State Secretary F.W. Reitz address a report to the Marquis of Salisbury, the British Prime Minister: “This removal took place in the most uncivilised and barbarous manner, while such action is … in conflict with all 63
the up to the present acknowledged rules of civilised warfare. The families were put out of their houses under compulsion, and in many instances by means of force … (the houses) were destroyed and burnt with everything in them … and these families among them were many aged ones, pregnant women, and children of very tender years, were removed in open trolleys (exposed) for weeks to rain, severe cold wind and terrible heat, privations to which they were not accustomed, with the result that many of them became very ill, and some of them died shortly after their arrival in the women's camps.” The vehicles were also overloaded, accidents happened and they were exposed to being caught in crossfire. They were exposed to insults and ill-treatment by Blacks in service of the troops as well as by soldiers. “…British mounted troops have not hesitated in driving them for miles before their horses, old women, little children, and mothers with sucklings to their breasts …” 30 November, The officially recorded camp population of the White camps is 117 974 and the deaths for November are 2 807. 1 December, Fully aware of the state of devastation in the Republics, and trying to force the Boer leadership to capitulate, Lord Milner approves a letter that Kitchener sends to London, with identical copies to Burger, Steyn and De Wet. In the letter he informs them that as they have complained about the treatment of the women and children in the camps, he must assume that they themselves are in a provision to provide for them. He therefore offers all families in the camps who are willing to leave, to be sent to the commandos, as soon as he has been informed where they can be handed over. 4 December, Lord Milner comments on the high death rate in the Free State concentration camps: “The theory that, all the weakly children being dead, the rate would fall off, it is not so far borne out by the facts. I take it the strong ones must be dying now and that they will all be dead by the spring of 1903! …” 7 December, In a letter to Chamberlain, Lord Milner writes: “… The black spot – the one very black spot – in the picture is the frightful mortality in the Concentration Camps … It was not until 6 weeks or 2 months ago that it dawned on me personally … that the enormous mortality was not incidental to the first formation of the camps and the sudden inrush of people already starving, but was going to continue. The fact that it continues is no doubt a condemnation of the camp system. The whole thing, I now think, has been a mistake.” 8 December, Commenting on the concentration camps, Lord Milner writes to Lord Haldane: “I am sorry to say I fear … that the whole thing has been a sad fiasco. We attempted an impossibility – and certainly I should never have touched the thing if, when the ‘concentration' first began, I could have foreseen that the soldiers meant to sweep the whole population of the country higgledy piggledy into a couple of dozen camps … “ 64
10 December, President Steyn replies to the British Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener's letter about releasing the women and children, that, however glad the burghers would be to have their relatives near them, there is hardly is single house in the Orange Free State that is not burnt or destroyed and everything in it looted by the soldiers. The women and children will be exposed to the weather under the open sky. On account of the above- mentioned reasons they have to refuse to receive them. He asks Kitchener to make the reasons for their refusal known to the world. 11 December, In his reply to Kitchener's letter about the release of women and children, Chief Commandant De Wet says: “I positively refuse to receive the families until such time as the war will be ended, and we shall be able to vindicate our right by presenting our claims for the unlawful removal of and the insults done to our families as well as indemnification on account of the uncivilised deed committed by England by the removal of the families …” 12 December, The report of the Ladies Commission (Fawcett Commission) is completed on this day, but is only published during February 1902. The Commission is highly critical of the camps and their administration, but cannot recommend the immediate closure of the camps “… to turn 100 000 people now being fed in the concentration camps out on the veldt to take care of themselves would be a cruelty; it would be turning them out to starvation…” The Commission substantiated the most Emily Hobhouse's serious charges, bur reviled her for her compassion for enemy subjects. 22 December, On Peace Sunday, Dr Charles Aked, a Baptist minister in Liverpool, England, protests: “Great Britain cannot win the battles without resorting to the last despicable cowardice of the most loathsome cur on earth – the act of striking a brave man's heart through his wife's honour and his child's life. The cowardly war has been conducted by methods of barbarism … the concentration camps have been Murder Camps.” He is followed home by a large crowd and they smash the windows of his house. 31 December, The camp population in White camps is 89 407 with 2 380 deaths during December. 1902 22 January, In a daring exploit, General Beyers and about 300 men seize the concentration camp at Pietersburg and take the camp superintendent and his staff prisoner. After all-night festivities with wives, friends and family, the superintendent and his staff are released the next day on the departure of Beyers. 31 January, The officially reported White camp population is 97 986 and the deaths for January are 1 805. 4 March, The long-delayed report of the Ladies Commission (Fawcett Commission) on the concentration camps is discussed in the House of Commons. The Commission concludes that there are three causes for the high death rate: “1. The insanitary condition of the country caused by the war. 65
2. Causes within the control of the inmates. 3. Causes within the control of the administration.” The Opposition tables the following motion: “This House deplores the great mortality in the concentration camps formed in the execution of the policy of clearing the country.” In his reply Chamberlain states that it was the Boers who forced the policy on them and the camps are actually an effort to minimise the horrors of war. The Opposition motion is defeated by 230 votes to 119. 24 March, Mr H.R. Fox, Secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society, after being made aware by Emily Hobhouse of the fact that the Ladies Commission (Fawcett Commission) ignored the plight of Blacks in concentration camps, writes to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary. He requests that such inquiries should be instituted by the British government “as should secure for the natives who are detained no less care and humanity than are now prescribed for the Boer refugees”. On this request Sir Montagu Ommaney, the permanent under-secretary at the Colonial Office, is later to record that it seems undesirable “to trouble Lord Milner … merely to satisfy this busybody”. 9 April, Emily Hobhouse's 42nd birthday. 30 April, The officially reported population of the White camps is 112 733 and the death toll for April stands at 298. 15 May, Sixty Republican delegates take part in a three-day conference in Vereeniging, debating whether to continue fighting or end the war. Complicated negotiations continue between Boer delegates among themselves and British delegates, also with different opinions, up to the end of May. During the peace negotiations Acting President Schalk Burger of the ZAR (South African Republic/Transvaal) says: “… it is my holy duty to stop this struggle now that it has become hopeless … and not to allow the innocent, helpless women and children to remain any longer in their misery in the plaque-stricken concentration camps …” 31 May, The officially reported camp population of the White camps is 116 572 and the deaths for May are 196.The final peace conditions, comprised in The Treaty of Vereeniging, is signed by representatives of both the Burghers and the British at 23:05 at Melrose House, Pretoria. After this, inhabitants of the concentration camps were gradually released as burghers came to claim the members of their families still living, while other left on their own to return to their burnt-down houses and farms. 27 927 persons died in the camps, 1 676 men, mainly those too old to be on commando, 4 177 women and 22 074 children under sixteen.
References:
• The Anglo-boer War Museum site: A History of the Boer Nation • Cloete, P.G. ( 2000). The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, Pretoria: Lapa.
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• Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v. 3, p. 378-380. • Potgieter, D.J. et al. (eds)(1970). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Cape Town: NASOU, v. 5, p. 544-546.
Black Concentration Camps during the Anglo-Boer War 2, 1900-1902
While the two main forces in the Anglo-Boer War 2 were White, it was not an exclusively White war. At least 15 000 Blacks were used as combatants by the British, especially as scouts to track down Boer commandoes and armed block house guards, but also in non-combatant roles by both British and Boer forces as wagon drivers, etc. They suffered severely as result of the British “scorched earth policy” during which those who lived on White farms were removed to concentration camps, as were the women and children of their White employers. The rural economy was destroyed as crops were ravaged and livestock butchered. Displaced and captured civilians were forced into ‘refugee camps', a total misnomer, because more often they did not seek refuge in the camps, but were rounded up by the British forces and forced into the camps, which soon became known as ‘concentration camps'. Field-Marshal Lord Roberts had an ulterior motive in putting Blacks into camps, namely to make them work, either to grow crops for the troops or to dig trenches, be wagon drivers or work as miners once the gold mines became partly operational again. They did not receive rations, hardly any medical support or shelter and were expected to grow their own crops. The able-bodied who could work, could exchange labour for food or buy mealie meal at a cheaper price. The British along racial lines separated the White and Black camps. The inmates of the Black camps, situated along railway lines and on the border, became the eyes and ears of the British army. They formed an early warning system against Boer attacks on the British military's primary logistic artery – the railway lines and acted as scouts for British forces. This strategy alienated Whites and Blacks from each other by
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furthering distrust between the two population groups and was detrimental to racial harmony in South Africa after the war. Concentration Camps for Blacks. Transvaal Colony: Balmoral; Belfast; Heidelberg; Irene; Klerksdorp; Krugersdorp; Middelburg; Standerton; Vereeniging; Volksrust; Bantjes; Bezuidenhout's Valley; Boksburg; Brakpan; Bronkhorstspruit; Brugspruit; Elandshoek; Elandsrivier; Frederikstad; Greylingstad; Groot Olifants River; Koekemoer; Klipriviersberg; Klip River; Meyerton; Natalspruit; Nelspruit; Nigel; Olifantsfontein; Paardekop; Platrand; Rietfontein West; Springs; Van der Merwe Station; Witkop; Wilgerivier. Free State: Allemans Siding; America Siding; Boschrand; Eensgevonden; Geneva; Harrismith; Heilbron; Holfontein; Honingspruit; Houtenbek; Koppies; Rooiwal; Rietspruit; Smaldeel; Serfontein; Thaba ‘Nchu; Taaibosch; Vet River; Virginia; Ventersburg Road; Vredefort Road; Welgelegen; Winburg; Wolwehoek. Cape Colony and British Bechuanaland.(Administered by the O.R.C): Kimberley; Orange River; Taungs; Dryharts.
1900 21 December, The inaugural meeting of the Burgher Peace Committee is held in Pretoria. Lord Kitchener discusses his concentration camp policies with this group, mentioning that stock and Blacks would also be brought in. 1901 4 May, The first gold mine on the Rand re-opens, after all mines have been closed in October 1899, a few days before war was declared. The Minister for Native Affairs permits the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association to recruit mining labour from the concentration camps. Simultaneous to the resumption of economic activity is the establishment of the Department of Native Refugees (DNR) under direct British military command. 1901 15 June, The British authority establishes the Department of Native Refugees in the ‘Transvaal Colony'. The Transvaal camps are brought under the control of the newly formed department. 1901 30 June, The official camp population of the Black camps is 32 360 and the deaths are not shown in official returns. 1901 31 July, The camp population in Black camps is 37 472 and 256 have died in the Free State camps during the month, while in Transvaal deaths are not yet recorded. 1901 31 August, The Free State camps are also brought under the control of the Department of Native Refugees
31 August, The camp population in Black camps is 53 154 and 575 deaths are recorded for August. 1901 30 September, The camp population in Black camps is 65 589 and 728 deaths are recorded. 1901 31 January, The population of Blacks in camps is 75 950 and 1 327 deaths are recorded for the month. 68
1901 22 January, At the Boschhoek concentration camp for Blacks, about 1 700 inmates, mostly Basuto, hold a protest meeting. They state that when they have been brought into the camps they have been promised that they will be paid for all their stock taken by the British, for all grain destroyed and that they will be fed and looked after. They are also unhappy because “… they receive no rations while the Boers who are the cause of the war are fed in the refugee camps free of charge … they who are the 'Children of the Government' are made to pay'. 1901 23 January, Two inmates of the Heuningspruit concentration camp for Blacks, Daniel Marome and G.J. Oliphant, complain to Goold-Adams: “We have to work hard all day long but the only food we can get is mealies and mealie meal, and this is not supplied to us free, but we have to purchase same with our own money. "We humbly request Your Honour to do something for us otherwise we will all perish of hunger for we have no money to keep on buying food." 1901 30 January, The population for the Black camps is 85 114 and 2 312 deaths are recorded for the month. 1901 31 December, The population in Black camps is 89 407, while the deaths peak during December at 2 831. 1902 18 January, Major De Lorbiniere, in charge of the Native Refugee Department, writes that supplying workers to the army 'formed the basis on which our system was founded'. The department's mobilisation of Black labour is very successful - not really surprising, considering the incentives offered: those in service and their families can buy mealies at a halfpence per lb, or 7/6 a bag, while those who do not accept employment have to pay double, or 1d per lb and 18/- or more per bag. By the end of 1901, when the death rate peaks, more than 6 000 accept employment in the British army. This figure grows to more than 13 000 in April 1902. The labourers are largely housed in Black concentration camps, situated close to military garrisons and towns, mines and railways sidings. 1902 31 January, The population of Black camps is 97 986 and 2 534 deaths are recorded. 1902 28 February, The population in Black camps is 101 344 and 1466 deaths are recorded. 1902 24 March, Mr H.R. Fox, Secretary of the Aborigines Protection Society, after being made aware by Emily Hobhouse of the fact that the Ladies Commission (Fawcett Commission) ignored the plight of Blacks in the concentration camps, writes to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary. He requests that such inquiries should be instituted by the British government "as should secure for the natives who are detained no less care and humanity than are now prescribed for the Boer refugees". On this request Sir Montagu 69
Ommaney, the permanent under-secretary at the Colonial Office, is later to record that it seems undesirable "to trouble Lord Milner … merely to satisfy this busybody". 1902 31 March, The population of the Black camps is 101 299 and 972 deaths are recorded. 1902 30 April, The population of the Black camps is 108 386 and 630 deaths are recorded. 1902 31 May, Black concentration camp population in the 66 Black camps (some sources give the number as 80) reach 115 700, of which 60 000 are in the Free State camps and 55 969 in the ZAR (South African Republic/Transvaal). 523 deaths are recorded for the month. 1902 31 May, The final peace conditions, The Treaty of Vereeniging, is signed by both the Burghers and the British at 23:05 at Melrose House, Pretoria.
The total Black deaths in camps are officially calculated at a minimum of 14 154 (more than 1 in 10), though G. Benneyworth estimates it as at least 20 000, after examining actual graveyards. According to him incomplete and in many cases non- existent British records and the fact that many civilians died outside of the camps, caused the final death toll to be higher . The average official death rate, caused by medical neglect, exposure, infectious diseases and malnutrition inside the camps was 350 per thousand per annum, peaking at 436 per thousand per annum in certain Free State camps. Eighty-one percent of the fatalities were children.
References:
• Benneyworth, G. (Undated). The Department of Native Refugee Camps: an historical overview. Unpublished. • Cloete, P.G. (2000). The Anglo-Boer War: a chronology, Pretoria: Lapa. • Black Concentration Camps Website. • Anglo Boer War Museum Website. The Role of Black People in the War. • Official Website of the City of Johannesburg. Article: Forgotten tales from when Jo'burg was at war.
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WHAT WERE THE EXPERIENCES OF BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS IN THE WAR? SKILLS: • Use sources to extract evidence and interpret information • Evaluate usefulness • Organise evidence to substantiate an argument
CONCEPTS: • Interpretation and explanation of information (what people said happened in ‘the past’) • Multiperspectivity
SOURCE 1A A photograph of armed Africans during the South African War taken from Illustrated History of South Africa Readers Digest 3rd ed. 1994. Date and
place of origin not known.
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SOURCE 1B An extract with the title “Black people under arms” to highlight the involvement of Blacks in the South African War” as evidence of the involvement of Blacks in the South African War taken from Illustrated History of South Africa Readers Digest 3rd ed. 1994
The South African War was fought by whites in a region where four- fifths of the population were black. Although for the most part Africans were spectators of the conflict fought over land which had once belonged to them, they were often used in a variety of roles by both sides. Despite an informal agreement between the Boers and Britons to keep armed Africans out of the conflict, many were pressed into service in support of roles, and some were even allowed to carry arms against the Boer forces as early as November 1899- egged on by the British. The British also supplied arms and ammunition to the Ngwato of the chief Kgama, to be used in protecting the frontier of the Bechuanaland Protectorate and, with it, the Mafeking – Bulawayo railway line. In the South, some 4000 Mfengu and Thembu were organised into armed levies to starve off any Boer attempt at invasion, and to suppress a possible Afrikaner – or, indeed, African rising. In the Hershel district of the north-eastern Cape, African special constables were hastily enlisted and instructed to patrol the border with the OFS. The Zululand Native Police, already in existence at the outbreak of the war, were armed with rifles, and a number of them were mounted. Also armed was the Edendale Horse. They like other Africans who served as scouts or fighting men, were denied the campaign medals to which they were entitled: Sir George Leuchars, Natal Minister of Native Affairs after the war, succeeded in blocking the awards on the grounds that he feared “these men would parade their medals before the Boers and irritate them.” Both sides denied that armed Africans served with them, each accusing the other of doing so. Thus, General Jan Kemp complained of the war being fought “contrary” to civilised warfare on account of it being carried on in a great measure with Kaffirs”. .Earlier, in Natal, word went round the British lines that “there are armed natives fighting with the Boers” – probably because of the Boer practice of going to war accompanied by a coloured or African agterryer (battleman) who tended the horses, collected fire wood, cooked and generally saw to the chores that needed doing about the camp. In the field, the agterryers carried spare ammunition belts and, if employer had one, an extra rifle. At least 10 000 coloured or African men went along with the commandos, not only as agterryers but also as drivers and headers. It is known that the Boers armed Africans at the three major sieges of the war, especially for outpost duty at night.
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SOURCE 1C
An extract on the role of Blacks in the South African War from South Africa A Modern History 4th ed.by Davenport TRH 1991.
Because it was a war between whites, it was not allowed, save in a marginal sense, to become a black man’s war. What was total war for the fifth of the population was therefore no war at all, in theory, for bthe bother four fifths. This was symbolised by Sol Plaatjie’s description, in his Mafeking diary entry for 9 December 1899, of Rolong herdboys openly guarding their stock in the no- man’s land between the Boers and British lines, and casually picking up the fragments of shells which burst nearby. Yet the role of blacks was by no means passive or as immune as this description suggests.
Republican laws forbade the carrying of arms by blacks, and Breytenbach affirms that the Boer authorities enforced this rule, limiting blacks who accompanied the commandos to the role of wagon–drivers or servants. Warwick’s observation that the Boers conscripted Africans and Coloured people “to dig trenches, drive wagons, collect firewood, attend to horses and... perform other duties related to the campaign’ carries the implication that ten or so agterryers who accompanied the commandos were of at least some military value.
Blacks were commonly required to stand in on the farms of commandeered burghers. On the British side, Roberts and Kitchener used blacks from the farms and the mines as labourers, drivers, convoy guards, dispatch riders, watchmen in block houses, and scouts. The black residents of the Mafeking stadt, who could move in and out of the town more easily than whites, often carried messages and raided Boer farms for cattle, which they brought into the town, sometimes after armed clashes with groups of Boers. Further north, Where Colonel Herbert Plumer fought a war of movement with the Boer commandos, in competition for the loyalty of the Tswana chiefdoms; mutual raiding occurred the Boers and Lentswe’s Kgatla, who at first planned to be neutral. Boer relations with black chiefdoms depended in large measure on the degree of their economic distress.
At the beginning of the war, black levies stationed on the borders of the Transkei, with the support of Cape Mounted Rifle detachments, successfully deterred the commandos from moving into the area; whereas the arming of Zulu revenge on the Vryheid commando in May 1902, when fifty six men were speared to death at Holkrans, showed, however, that as a force they were not to be discounted. General Kemp, urging his compatriots to fight on at Vereeniging, claimed to have no problem where food supplies were concerned
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because he “took what he wanted from the Kaffirs”. There were, on the other hand, many Boer complaints that the British armed the blacks in order to cause trouble for the Boers.
National Scouts and their families were particularly vulnerable to Boer retribution, and it was in the first instance to protect them that the British military authorities decided in the second half of 1900 to set up concentration camps. But before the end of the year, the concept was enlarged to include civilians cleared from their homes as a result of farm burnings and military sweeps. Two categories of camp inmate were soon distinguished: those who were non-partisan or had taken oaths of allegiance to the Queen, ant those whose husbands or sons were on commando and were regarded as hostile to the Imperial cause. The former received more considerable treatment. Some forty-four camps for whites were set up altogether, most of them at the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. They were transferred to civilian control in November 1901, after Milner had protested to Kitchener about the harshness of the system and the high mortality rate, which had risen to 344 per thousand during October.
The camps became a public scandal on account of the high incidence of disease in them (mainly measles and amoebic dysentery), and their administrative defects to which Emily Hobhouse and Joshua Rown tree drew attention during their visits in 1900-1. SA the war drew close, conditions in the camps improved until the death rate was not abnormal, but by then, 27,927 inmates had died, of whom about 22,000 were under the age of 16. Milner criticised the camps because of the adverse publicity which they gave to the British cause. The military authorities, however, would have had fewer problems if they had been allowed by their civilian counter parts to make peace with the Boers and leave them some measure of independence.
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The role and experiences of the women during the South African War 1899- 1902
For many years women had been seen as the inferior sex, their main function being child-bearing and their main occupation housekeeping. Even after the right to vote had been obtained it was usually won, rather than given freely. Although the Anglo-Boer war of 1899 to 1902 can primarily be seen as a man’s war, women can by no means be written out of it. The furore created by the implementation of the British scorched earth strategy and concentration camps policies as well as the emergence after the war of literature, mostly first-hand accounts by women who claimed that they bore the brunt of the war, ensured that from a feminine viewpoint the war became one of the best-recorded episodes of the history in South Africa.
Soon preparations for the war were full swing. Many of the women in Bloemfontein and surrounding started baking rusks for the burghes. While the man were preparing for the war by holding shooting competitions, the women were not to be outdone. They soon organized a shooting club of their own and gathered regularly on the farm of F.C. Eloff to hold their own shooting practices.
Women as farm managers The outbreak of the war disrupted the traditional Boer family unit. The women did not only have to adjust to the absence of their menfolk, but also as the war progressed to their deaths, disablement or capture. The women, as they had done so many times before in times of crisis assumed control on the farms as their menfolk left for commando duty. They continued with the daily farming, ploughing and sowing although they experience some difficulties in doing so. Others turned their hand to making shoes for their children. Others continued to milk their cows and deep their sheep. The farming activities had to go on despite the absence of their men. Others tamed their own leather for their own use but also to help the commando’s with soles for shoes, the making of tack, braces and even clothing. The handling of the new set of task was not easy at all. In certain farms some women were in charge of the animal shearing of sheep.
Women in the vicinity of Pretoria drove their wagons into town to sell their produce at the market. Some had to contend with labourers who were used to their husband doing some job on the farm in a certain way.
On 7 December 1900 the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa appealed for funds for the preservation of soldiers graves in South Africa. Queen Victoria; the Princess of Wales and Princess Christian all gave the movement their sympathetic patronage.
On 26 January 1901 a meeting was held in Bloemfontein with the object of forming a branch of Loyal Women’s Guild of South Africa. According to Bishop Webb the chief objective of the Guild would be to trace the last resting place of the soldiers for their relatives and to care for the grave.
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Handling of fears and uncertainty The women also had to be contend with the chronic uncertainty about the fate of their menfolk, aided and abetted by rumours circulating through the districts.
Moral support, aid and assistance and religion Women played an important role to the men on commando, giving them both spiritual and material support. They send the messages, letters and sometimes food parcels and clothes.
Moral support was a cardinal issue, when a spirit of depression swept through the ranks of the burghers after the disaster at Paardeberg and subsequent loss of the two capitals, namely Bloemfontein and Pretoria Generals of the Boers asked the women to support their men morally and spiritually.
Another service regarding aid and assistance rendered by women in Pretoria was the formation of sewing groups which provided new clothes for the commandos. The wife of the landrost of Pretoria, Mrs Schutte, organized this project early in December 1899 with the idea of making shirts and trousers for the men on commando. By January 1900 the sewing group was fully established and the Volkstem published an appeal to all the women of Pretoria, both rich and poor to join.
War nurses, nursing service and volunteer By 1 October 1899 Dr Ramsbottom asked the MP of Boshof, Mr C. Marais, to instruct the local doctor, Dr Wernich, to start first aid classes for all ladies and gentlemen who were interested. Dr Taylor of Ficksburg was also asked to form a first-aid class in Ficksburg. He instructed them in bandaging, dressing wounds. He soon had a class of about 100 ladies who received lectures twice a week in the court-house. In mid-August 1899, an appeal was made for the volunteers who would be prepared to offer their services to the Red Cross. There was an overwhelming response. Many of the women offered their services in Pretoria and they were willing to join the hospital at the front as well. The experienced nurses were enrolled immediately while the others underwent training in bandaging wounds and injuries so that they could be of use once war had been declared.
The British scorched earth strategy had extremely negative implications for the women involved in this logistically guerilla-warfare tactics of General de Wet. The commando’s were mainly dependent on what they could glean from the farms, and the destruction of farms over-eager soldiers carrying out Roberts’ words to the latter, seriously hampered their obtaining the necessary supplies to survive on commando. General Botha warned everybody who did not want to stay on the farms because of British to flee in front of the approaching British forces.
The fleeing women and children, once they were outside the reach of the British and where there they had an opportunity to saw the education of their children. They taught them basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
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As far the role of the black people is concerned the political and economic position of the blacks on the eve of the merits attention. During this time the black people had gradually became under the whites controlled. Britain annexed Lesotho in 1868 and in 1885 extended a protectorate over Botswana. During these years the black population also surrendered their economic independence. Large areas were taken over for white’s settlement. A system of migrant labour emerged in which the whites became dependent on black labour, and the blacks in turn dependent on the economy and industries of the whites.
During the Scorched earth tactics of the British authority blacks and coloureds were often kept prisoners in the white concentration camps together with the whites inmates. The blacks women and blacks girls were supposed to worked as servant for white farmer and their families.
Large areas were set aside for cultivation, and the camps were moved near the railway line.
Deserted farms were utilized for cultivation, which was a task left to the women and children.
Potatoes, pumpkins and fodder crops were produced to supplement British army supplies, while maize and sorghum were grown for black consumption.
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1.1 Use all the sources to show how blacks were involved in the SA War. (10)
TO ASSESS THE ABILITY TO WRITE A PIECE OF HISTORY (IN AN ORGANISED PARAGRAPH) BY USING EVIDENCE FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES.
Candidates must be • Able to extract appropriate evidence from sources • Able to organise the evidence in and structured paragraph.
Cannot extract evidence or extract evidence from sources in a very elementary manner. Use evidence partially to report on topic or cannot 0 – 3 marks LEVEL 1 report on topic.
Extract evidence from sources that is mostly relevant and relate to a great LEVEL 2 4 – 7 marks extent to the topic. Use evidence from sources in a very basic manner.
Extract relevant evidence from sources that relate very well to the topic. LEVEL 3 Use evidence from sources very effectively and in their historical context. 8 – 10 marks It is organised in a paragraph that shows an understanding of the topic.
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1.2 It has been argued that blacks must not be involved in the South African War because it was a whites' only war. Comment critically on this argument by referring to Sources 1A, 1B, 1C and your own understanding of the participation of blacks in the war. (8)
TO MAKE A CHOICE AND JUSTIFY THE CHOICE BASED ON THE ABILITY TO LOOK AT SITUATIONS/ EVENTS/ISSUES.
Candidates must be • Able to take a stance • Able to use evidence in sources to substantiate argument • Able to use appropriate evidence to formulate a relevant viewpoint
Did not make a choice or made a choice but has not justified the choice in a way that relates to the evidence in the sources or shows an Marks: 0 – 2 LEVEL 1 understanding of the situation/event/issue.
A relevant point of view has been chosen. Valid reasons for the choice LEVEL 2 were given. The justification and the use of evidence from the sources Marks: 3 – 5 show to a certain extent an understanding of the situation/event/issue.
A relevant point of view has been chosen. Logical, clear and valid LEVEL 3 reasons for the choice have been made. The justification relates very Marks: 6 – 8 well to the situation/event/issue.
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1.3 In what way does the photograph (Source 1A) support the evidence in the written sources (Sources 1B and Sources 1C)? (6)
TO ASSESS THE ABILITY TO DETERMINE WHETEHER THE SOURCES SUPPORT EACH OTHER Candidates must be • Able to compare evidence in sources • Able to determine whether the evidence can be used to determine usefulness • Able to use the evidence to formulate a viewpoint
Candidate is not able or partially able to use evidence to determine 0 – 2 marks whether the photograph supports the evidence in the written sources. LEVEL 1
Candidate is able to use evidence to determine partially whether the LEVEL 2 3 – 4 marks photograph supports the evidence in the written sources.
Understands how and has the ability to use evidence to understand the LEVEL 3 usefulness of the source(s). The candidate uses this ability to come to a 5 – 6 marks clear and sound conclusion about the usefulness of the source(s).
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Let’s illustrate by way of example how an appropriately selected passage can be used to critically review our past. Key question: How is the history of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Thulamela cast in new light through archaeological studies? Can this account be used to demystify old notions of African societies? Let us examine this by referring to the following passage from Esterhuysen (2004, 40-41)
“Archaeologists excavating sites in the area around the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers have found evidence of societies participating in the east coast trade over a thousand years ago. This was part of a large interior trade network that included Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. By 1220, control of wealth by a certain sector of that society gave rise to an elite social class. Archaeological excavations at a site called Mapungubwe show that the elite class lived on top of a hill in an elaborate stonewalled complex, while the commoners lived down below.
Archaeologists have interpreted this as the first evidence for sacred leadership. Sacred leadership most often occurs when people believe in a mystical relationship between the leader and land. The leader’s royal ancestors are believed to be very powerful and to intercede with God on behalf of the common people for things like rain or fertility. …Monoliths and horns of sacred cattle were often placed on walls surrounding this person’s residence; these were seen as symbols of justice and defence.
Mapungubwe was occupied between 1200 and 1300. Its end coincided with the rise of Great Zimbabwe. At Great Zimbabwe, wealth from the gold and ivory trade contributed to an even greater and more elaborate power base. Massive walled structures, gold objects and the large size of the capital testify to the power of Great Zimbabwe’s leaders.
In the mid 1400s Great Zimbabwe was abandoned, and power shifted to Khami near present day Bulawayo. At about the same time, several groups moved south across the Limpopo River and established new settlements. The ruins of one such settlement can be found in the Kruger National Park as is known as Thulamela.
Thulamela was occupied during the Portuguese trade period, between 1550 and 1650. The presence of glass beads, seashells and Chinese porcelain indicates that it was part of the on-going trade with the east coast”
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GRADE 10
OVERALL KEY QUESTION FOR FET COMMENTS How do we understand our world today? What legacies of the past shape the present? In understanding our world today and the legacies that shaped our present, the broad themes of power alignments, human rights, issues of civil society and globalization KEY QUESTION-CONSTANTLY were used in suggesting areas of content. Each grade opens with a broad survey of the world at the beginning of the period and closes with a summary of the changes during USED AS BASIS FOR FURTHER the period HISTORICAL ENQUIRY AND PROBITY HERITAGE (REFLEXIVE COMPETENCE) (USE LIBERALLY) The learner is able to engage critically around issues of heritage. NOTE: In this outcome local history, heritage and public history are linked to sites, monuments, museums, oral histories and traditions, street names, buildings, public holidays and the debates around all of these.
1. Give an explanation of what is meant by heritage and public representations CONSISTENT THEME DIFFERENT and of the importance of conservation of heritage sites and public CONTENT / FOCUS OF STUDY FROM representations. GRADE TO GRADE 2. Explain what is meant by knowledge systems, including indigenous knowledge systems. 3. Identify ways in which archaeology, oral history and indigenous knowledge systems contribute to an understanding of our heritage. THE ABILITY TO USE KNOW FROM A FOCUS (“Content”) VARIETY OF SOURCES AND APPLY IN CURRENT CONTEXT/ TASK
CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION
COVERS AN ARRAY OF HERITAGE ISSUES
ROLE OF IKS, ORAL HISTORY / EVIDENCE
ARCHAEOLOGY – INTERDISCIPLINARY DISCOURSE
SPECIFIC CONTEXT
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